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THE  ANACREONTEA 


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TTHE  ANACREONTEA 

*  y  PRINCIPAL  REMAINS  OF  ANACREON 
OF  TEOS,  IN  ENGLISH  VERSE  •  WITH  AN 
ESSAY,  NOTES,  AND  ADDITIONAL  POEMS 
BY   JUDSON    FRANCE    DAVIDSON 


TloWdKi.  ixkv  t68*  Aet(ra,  Kal  iK  ri(i§ov  5^  ^oijcruj 
UlveT€f  trplv  TaiL>Tr)v  d/x(pi.pd\7jffd€  koviv. 
Julian 


MCMXV 

LONDON    AND    TORONTO 

J.   M.  DENT   &   SONS   LTD. 
NEW  YORK:  E.  P.  DUTTON  y  CO. 


PA 

'^    ■lAY?./  1963       )| 


SUffflO 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface         i 

Introductory  Essay     . 

11 

I. 

On  his  Lyre 

53 

II. 

On  Women    . 

55 

III. 

Eros  Benighted   . 

57 

IV. 

On  his  Tastes 

6o 

V. 

On  the  Rose 

6i 

VI. 

On  a  Revel. 

63 

VII. 

The  Power  of  Love     . 

64 

VIII. 

The  Dream  . 

65 

IX. 

On  a  Dove   . 

67 

X. 

On  a  Waxen  Eros 

70 

XI. 

On  Himself  . 

71 

XII. 

On  a  Swallow 

72 

XIII. 

On  Atys 

73 

XIV. 

The  Combat. 

74 

XV. 

On  Living  Unenviously 

76 

XVI. 

The  Captive. 

78 

XVII. 

On  a  Silver  Drinking  Cup 

79 

XVIII. 

On  the  Same 

81 

XIX. 

Reasons  for  Drinking. 

82 

XX. 

To  his  Mistress    . 

84 

VI 


THE  ANACREONTEA 


XXI.  Summer 
XXII.  The  Retreat 

XXIII.  On  the  Love  of  Lucre 

XXIV.  The  Gay  Reveller 
XXV.  Wine  and  Care    . 

XXVI.  The  Joys  of  Wine 
XXVII.  On  Bacchus. 
XXVIII.  Portrait  of  his  Mistress 
XXIX.  Portrait  of  Bathyllus 
XXX.  The  Voluntary  Captive 
XXXI.  Pleasing  Frenzy  . 
XXXII.  On  the  Number  of  his  Amours 

XXXIII.  On  a  Swallow      . 

XXXIV.  To  A  Damsel 
XXXV.  On  Europa  . 

XXXVI.  Life  should  be  Enjoyed 
XXXVII.  On  Spring     . 
XXXVIII.  Young  Old  Age    . 
XXXIX.  The  Transports  of  Wine 
XL.  Eros  Stung  by  a  Bee  . 
XLI.  On  a  Banquet 
XLII.  The  Epicurean 
XLIII.  The  Cicada  . 
XLIV.  On  a  Dream 
XLV.  The  Darts  of  Love 
XLVI.  The  Power  of  Gold     . 
XLVII.  Youth  of  the  Heart   . 


CONTENTS 

vii 

PAGE 

XLVIII. 

Moderation  .         .         .         •         .         .128 

XLIX. 

To  a  Painter        .... 

129 

L. 

The  Beneficence  of  Bacchus 

130 

LI. 

On  a  Disk  Exhibiting  Aphrodite 

132 

LII. 

The  Vintage         .... 

134 

LIII. 

The  Rose      . 

13s 

LIV. 

Young  Again 

138 

LV. 

On  Lovers    . 

139 

LVI. 

The  Love-Draught 

140 

LVII. 

Epithalamium 

141 

LVIII. 

Dispraise  of  Gold 

143 

LIX. 

On  Spring     . 

14s 

LX. 

The  Vision   . 

146 

LXI. 

On  Apollo    . 

.    147 

LXII. 

On  his  Wish 

.    149 

RELIQUIAE  OF  ANACREON 

I.  Love  and  Disdain 150 

II.  On 

HIS  Old  Age. 

•      iSi 

III.  Judicious  Revelry 

.    152 

IV.  Allegory     . 

.     154 

V.  A  Prayer  to  Artemis. 

•     155 

VI.  A  Prayer  to  Love 

.     156 

VII.  Love  and  Age     . 

.     157 

VIII.  Love  the  All-Subduer 

.     158 

IX.  On  Artemon 

.     159 

X.  Contentment 

.     161 

VIU 


THE  ANACREONTEA 


XI.  To  HIS  Page 
XII.  Praise  of  Beauty 
XIII.  The  Lover's  Leap 
XIV.  The  Flight  from  Battle 
XV.  On  Company 
XVI.  To  Leucaspis 
XVII.  The  Cup  of  Death 


page 
162 
162 
163 
163 
164 
164 
165 


EPIGRAMS 
I.  On  Timocritus     .         .         .         .         .         .166 

II.  On  Agathon         ......     167 

III.  On  Cleeonorides  .  .  .         .  .167 

IV.  On  Aristoclides  .  .         .         .         .         .168 

V.  On  Three  Bacchantes         .         .         .         .     168 

VI.  On  a  Broidered  Mantle     .         .         .         .169 
VII.  On  Myron's  Cow 169 


ADDITIONAL  POEMS 
Epigrams  on  Anacreon 

I.  From  Antipater  of  Sidon 
II.  From  the  Same     . 

III.  From  the  Same 

IV.  From  the  Same 

V.  Attributed  to  Simonides  of  Ceos 
VI.  Attributed  to  the  Same 
VII.  From  Leonidas  of  Tarentum 
VIII.  Attributed  to  Theocritus 
K.  From  Critias  of  Athens  . 
X.  From  Celio  Calcagnini    . 


170 
171 
172 
173 
174 
176 
178 
180 
181 
182 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

Moore's  Greek  Ode  Translated  .  .  .  .  184 
Poems  on  Anacreon  by  the  Translator 

I.  "  Hail!   Teian  poet,  who  didst  wage  "      .         .186 
II.  "  Were  I  a  master  of  Apelles'  art  "  .  .187 

in.  "  O  blithe  stray  spirit  of  the  Teian  Muse  "        .     188 
IV.  "  Bard  of  the  flower-sweet  lyre,  what  life  was 

thine" 189 

Anacreontics  by  the  Translator 

I.  "  To  the  lute's  voluptuous  sound  "  .  .194 

II.  "  Comrades,  joyous  be  to-night  "     .  .  .     195 

III.  "  Raindrops  dance  earthward  musically  "  .     196 

IV.  "  Merry  comrades,  to  blithe  Bacchus  "  .198 

The  Death  of  Adonis  (attributed  to  Bion)  .  .  200 
Eros  the  Runaway  (Moschus,  Idyllium  I.)         .  .     203 

Praise  of  Wine  (Bacchylides  of  Ceos)  .  .  .  206 
On  CiELiA  (Angerianus,  Sports  of  Cupid,  Epigram  XL.)  207 
To  Cassandra  (Pierre  Ronsard)  ....  208 
Love  (George  Buchanan)  .         .         .         .         .210 

Drinking  Song  (Theophile  Gautier)  .         .  .         .212 


PREFACE 

Some  years  ago  I  versified  several  of  the  odes 
of  Anacreon  and  of  tKe  Anacreontea,  and  later 
it  occurred  to  me  to  make  a  complete  trans- 
lation of  them  in  the  modern  manner.  This 
I  have  attempted,  with  what  degree  of  success 
or  failure  the  public  must  judge. 

There  have  been,  as  is  well  known,  many- 
translations  in  English  verse  of  the  Teian  muse. 
Among  them  may  be  mentioned  those  of 
Stanley,  Cowley,  Addison,  Fawkes,  Urquhart, 
Greene,  Lord  Thurlow,  Moore,  Bourne,  and 
Arnold.  Of  these  versions  those  of  Stanley, 
Fawkes,  and  Moore  are  the  most  esteemed. 
They  have  had  the  greatest  vogue,  and  on 
them  have  been  bestowed  the  euge  of  the 
critics  and  the  seal  of  popular  approval.  On 
these  three  translations  I  desire  briefly  to 
animadvert. 

In  165 1  Stanley's  Anacreon  was  published 


2  THE  ANACREONTEA 

with  other  poetical  translations  of  the  author. 
The  full  title  of  the  work  is :  Anacreon^  Bion, 
Moschus,  Kisses  by  Johannes  Secundus,  Cupid 
Crucified  by  Ausonius,  Fenus^  Vigils^  and 
divers  other  poems  by  Thomas  Stanley,  Stanley's 
translation  is  distinguished  by  perspicuity, 
simplicity,  fidelity  to  the  original,  and  a 
certain  amount  of  vigour  resulting  from 
conciseness,  precision  and  condensation.  It 
conveys  the  essence  of  the  original  with  con- 
siderable success,  and  was  accorded  a  just 
due  of  admiration  and  applause.  But  in 
elegance  of  diction  and  harmony  of  numbers 
it  was  surpassed  by  the  version  of  the  Rev. 
Francis  Fawkes  ("  a  gentleman  of  Cam- 
bridge "),  which  contained  thirteen  of  the 
sixteen  traductions  made  by  Dr.  Broome, 
the  coadjutor  of  Pope  in  his  version  of  the 
Odyssey y  and  which  appeared  in  1760  in  a 
volume  including  also  Fawkes'  version  of 
Bion,  Moschus  and  Theocritus. 

This   translation,   which   is   scholarly   and 
elegant  and  characteristic  of  times  which  still 


PREFACE  3 

felt  the  influence  of  Pope,  for  many  years 
occupied  a  high  place  in  public  favour — a 
place,  however,  to  which  Moore  succeeded  on 
the  appearance  in  1800  of  his  Odes  of  Anacreon, 
dedicated  to  the  Prince  Regent,  and  published 
under  peculiarly  auspicious  circumstances. 
This  is  considered  the  best  translation  of  the 
odes  which  we  possess.  Moore  was  emi- 
nently fitted  for  the  undertaking  by  nature, 
genius  and  acquirements.  If  his  classical 
scholarship  was  not  so  profound  as  that  of 
his  predecessors  Stanley  and  Fawkes,  he  had, 
on  the  other  hand,  more  of  the  divine  afllatus 
than  either  of  them.  His  knowledge  of  Greek 
was  more  than  sufficient  for  the  task.  His 
convivial  and  amatory  temperament,  his  poco- 
curantism,  his  hedonic  predilections,  and  the 
fact  that  he  was  in  the  heyday  of  ardent 
youth,  all  conspired  to  enable  him  to  execute 
the  translation  con  amore,  and  with  signal 
success.  His  method  of  rendering  the  odes 
is  diffusive,  and  more  expansive  than  that  of 
his  predecessors,  and  he  avails  himself  of  the 


4  THE  ANACREONTEA 

liberties  of  paraphrase  to  a  great  extent,  but 
he  has  preserved  the  spirit  of  the  original  in 
a  praiseworthy  manner.  His  mode  of  treat- 
ment is  delicately  suggestive,  and  he  has  im- 
parted to  the  work  all  the  seductive  grace 
and  witchery  of  his  mellifluous  muse. 

While,  therefore,  we  possess  admirable 
translations  of  these  poems,  the  time  cannot 
be  fixed  when  the  last  or  best  translation  will 
be  made.  Each  translation,  moreover,  must 
be  coloured  more  or  less  by  the  individuality 
of  the  translator,  and  by  the  literary  methods 
and  habits  of  the  time  in  which  he  lives. 
Since  Moore's  day  the  language  has  been 
improved,  its  vocabulary  enlarged,  and  the 
province  of  poetry  enriched  by  a  variety  of 
new  metres.  The  modern  manner  is  charac- 
terised by  great  lyric  fluency,  a  careful  con- 
sideration of  the  effects  of  assonance  and 
alliteration,  the  special  selection  of  words  and 
phrases  for  their  artistic  value,  and  by  the 
revival  of  old  artifices  and  the  invention  of 
new  ones. 


PREFACE  5 

My  method  of  translating  is  concise  as 
opposed  to  diffuse — both  these  styles,  how- 
ever, have  their  merits.  The  version  will  be 
found  to  be  closer  to  the  original  than  those 
of  Fawkes,  Moore,  and  some  of  the  others 
mentioned  heretofore.  I  have  made  use  of  a 
variety  of  metres,  and  variety  has  been  sought 
in  the  rhymes  and  arrangement  of  the  lines. 
I  have  used  a  sprinkling  of  archaic  words  and 
a  few  balladisms,  which  sometimes  have  the 
merit  of  being  forcible  and  picturesque,  and 
for  the  use  of  which  I  trust  no  apology  is 
needed. 

After  the  manner  of  Fawkes  and  others  I 
have  given  appropriate  titles  to  some  of  the 
odes  in  cases  where  such  were  wanting  in  the 
text.  I  have  endeavoured  as  far  as  in  me  lay 
to  do  justice  to  Anacreon  and  the  poets  of 
the  Anacreontea,  and  to  transfuse  as  far  as 
possible  the  simplicity,  beauty  and  vivacity 
of  spirit  characteristic  of  the  originals.  In 
the  addenda  will  be  found  a  selection  of 
tributes   to   Anacreon    from   the   Greek  An- 


6  THE  ANACREONTEA 

thology  and  other  sources,  some  ventures  of 
my  own  in  this  direction  as  well  as  a  few 
Anacreontics,  and  several  poems  illustrative 
of  the  treatment  by  other  poets  of  Anacreontic 
topics.  Up  to  and  including  Ode  LV.  I  have 
followed  the  order  of  Joshua  Barnes,  one 
of  the  most  learned  of  Anacreontic  scholars, 
in  his  edition  of  Anacreon  Teius  (Cantabrigiae, 
MDCCXXI.)  From  this  point  a  re-arrange- 
ment was  imposed  by  the  necessity  of  segre- 
gating the  genuine  remains  of  Anacreon. 
The  notes  and  the  introductory  essay  are 
offered  without  pretence  to  scientific  scholar- 
ship, and  present  merely  such  information  as 
I  was  able  to  gather  for  the  elucidation  of  the 
poet's  works  and  the  interest  of  the  general 
reader;  at  the  same  time  I  have  endeavoured 
to  make  them  accurate  and  trustworthy,  and 
to  avoid  copying  old  errors  in  matters  Ana- 
creontic, which  is  sometimes  done  even  to 
this  day.  Unless  otherwise  acknowledged  the 
notes  are  my  own.  In  the  essay  I  have  con- 
ceived of  Anacreon  not  as  a  mere  writer  of 


PREFACE  7 

nugce  canorcB^  but  as  a  man  of  genius,  the 
possessor  of  a  vigorous,  various,  versatile 
mind. 

Finally,  I  desire  gratefully  to  acknowledge 
my  indebtedness  to  my  brother.  Dr.  Frederic 
Davidson,  of  Toronto,  for  the  loan  of  books, 
for  valuable  information  relative  to  Anacreon, 
and  especially  for  his  labours  in  arranging  and 
editing  my  manuscript;  and  I  am  minded 
likewise,  and  with  equal  gratitude,  to  make 
mention  of  the  services  rendered  by  Professor 
H.  Rushton  Fairclough  of  Stanford  University, 
California,  in  the  translation  of  certain  obscure 
and  difficult  passages  in  the  Greek. 

J.  F.  D. 

Toronto,  February  19 14. 


EDITOR'S  NOTE 

Owing  to  my  brother's  continued  ill-health 
it  has  devolved  upon  me  to  put  this  work  of 
his  in  shape  for  the  press.  I  feel  keenly  my 
insufficiency  for  the  task,  and  trust  that  any 
errors  and  defects  may  be  imputed  to  me, 
and  the  credit  to  him. 

Had  it  not  been  for  his  illness  and  for  other 
circumstances  beyond  control,  the  work  would 
doubtless  have  seen  the  light  some  years  ago, 
or,  appearing  now,  would  have  taken  greater 
advantage  of  recent  scholarship.  These  con- 
ditions, however,  could  at  most  aifect  the 
Notes  and  Essay,  hardly  the  translations  of 
the  poems.  The  work  is  also,  primarily,  a 
work  of  literature  rather  than  one  of  erudition. 

F.  D. 

Toronto,  March  19 14. 


THE    ANACREONTEA 


INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY 

'Efik  yd,p  {v4oi)  \6yo)v  et- 

V€Ka  waWes  &v  (piKocev 
Xaplevra  ixkv  yap  45  w, 

XO'plevTa  5'  oXSa  \4^ai. 

Anac.  Frag.  XLV.  (Bergk.) 


Life  and  Times  of  Anacreon 

Although  the  full  meridian  of  the  intellectual 
and  material  grandeur  of  ancient  Greece — ^the 
nursery  once  of  freedom  and  the  arts — ^was 
not  attained  until  the  age  of  Pericles,  Anacreon 
flourished  in  a  very  important  and  brilliant 
epoch.  Great  changes,  developments  and 
events  were  occurring  on  all  sides.  It  was  a 
time  of  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  of  moving 
accidents  by  flood  and  field,  of  deeds  of  high 


12  THE  ANACREONTEA 

emprise  in  the  political,  military  and  literary- 
worlds. 

Among  the  important  events  which  befell 
in  the  lifetime  of  Anacreon  may  be  enumerated 
the  following :  The  overthrow  of  Astyages  and 
Croesus  by  Cyrus;  the  capture  of  Babylon 
after  a  two  years'  siege  by  Cyrus  and  Darius 
the  Mede;  the  return  of  the  Jews  in  accord- 
ance with  the  edict  of  Cyrus,  and  the  rebuild- 
ing of  the  temple;  the  subjugation  of  the 
Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor  by  Harpagus;  the 
wild  conquest  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses;  the 
crucifixion  of  Polycrates,  tyrant  of  Samos; 
the  assassination  of  Hipparchus ;  the  expulsion 
of  Hippias  and  the  other  Pisistratids  from 
Athens;  the  destruction  by  fire  and  the  re- 
building of  the  temple  of  Apollo  at  Delphi  on 
a  scale  of  great  magnificence  by  the  Alcmae- 
onidae ;  the  capture  and  destruction  of  Sybaris 
by  the  Crotonians  under  Milo;  the  Ionic 
revolt  headed  by  Aristagoras  and  incited  by 
Histiaeus,  who  had  been  compelled  by  Darius 
to  dwell  at  the  Persian  court;   the  burning  of 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  13 

Sardis  by  the  lonians  and  Athenians;  the 
capture,  sack  and  ruin  of  Miletus  by  the 
Persians;  the  battle  of  Marathon  with  its 
momentous  and  far-reaching  influence  upon 
the  history  of  the  world;  the  conflict  at  the 
pass  of  Thermopylae;  the  battles  of  Mycale 
and  of  "old  Platoea's  day,"  and  the  naval 
engagements  of  Artemisium  and  Salamis. 

In  the  age  of  Anacreon  lived  the  great 
military  commanders  Themistocles,  Miltiades, 
Aristides  and  Pausanias ;  the  mild  yet  resolute 
Pisistratus;  Isagoras,  the  great  leader  of  the 
Athenian  nobles ;  Cleomenes,  Demaratus,  and 
Leonidas,  the  Spartan  warrior  kings ;  the  wise 
and  politic  Darius  Hystaspes;  the  handsome 
but  ill-starred  Xerxes ;  the  enlightened  and 
munificent  Amasis,  King  of  Egypt ;  and  the  fell 
and  flagitious  Phalaris,  tyrant  of  Agrigentum. 

In  the  childhood  of  Anacreon  the  sages  Bias 
and  Cleobulus  were  still  alive,  who  with  Thales 
and  the  rest  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men  were 
the  precursors  of  that  noble  philosophy  for 
which  Greece  afterwards  became  so  renowned. 


14  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Flourished  then  Anaximander  who  first  con- 
structed spheres  and  sun-dials  and  asserted 
the  rotundity  of  the  earth ;  Zeno  of  Elia,  the 
reputed  inventor  of  dialectics;  the  instructor 
of  Pericles,  Anaxagoras,  who  was  no  mean 
astronomer,  and  who  exercised  considerable 
influence  upon  the  culture  of  his  time ;  Xeno- 
phanes  of  Colophon,  who  was  the  first  to 
promulge  the  Eleatic  doctrine  of  the  unity  of 
the  universe,  and  who  as  an  elegiac  poet  was 
reputed  equal  to  Mimnermus;  Heraclitus  of 
Ephesus,  the  pessimistic  fire  philosopher;  and 
also  the  illustrious  Samian  sage,  Pythagoras, 
one  of  the  greatest  adepts  in  occult  science 
whom  the  world  has  seen. 

Contemporary  with  Anacreon  were  the 
historians  Hecataeus  of  Miletus,  Charon  of 
Lampsacus,  and  Herodorus  of  Heraclea,  as 
well  as  the  sculptors  Agelades  of  Argos, 
Anthermos  of  Chios,  and  Buphelus  of  Clazo- 
menae.  It  was  then  that  Thespis,  introducing 
regular  dialogue  into  the  choral  representa- 
tions, and  adding  an  actor  independent  of  the 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  15 

chorus,  gave  itinerant  dramatic  entertain- 
ments, having  his  face  smeared  with  wine  lees 
for  a  disguise,  and  so,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  Solon,  laid  the  foundations  of  Greek  tragedy 
which  Phrynichus  as  well  as  ^schylus  im- 
proved, and  Sophocles  and  afterwards  Euri- 
pides (born  on  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Salamis) 
brought  to  perfection. 

Synchronous  with  Anacreon  flourished 
Theognis  of  Megara,  whose  perceptive  poetry 
showed  considerable  knowledge  of  men  and 
manners,  and  which  was  collected  and  taught 
as  a  manual  of  wisdom  and  virtue;  and  the 
deformed  iambic  poet  Hipponax  of  Ephesus 
with  his  terrible  sarcasm — ^no  unworthy  emu- 
lator of  Archilochus.  Coeval  also  with  Ana- 
creon was  Corinna  of  Tanagra  surnamed  the 
Lyric  Muse,  the  instructress  of  Pindar  in 
poetry  and  rhetoric,  whose  charms  of  person 
are  said  to  have  surpassed  her  poetical  genius. 
Mention  must  likewise  be  made  of  Myrtis  of 
Anthedon,  in  whose  honour  statues  were 
erected  in  various  parts  of  Greece,  and  to 


i6  THE  ANACREONTEA 

whom  Corinna  was  disciple.  Nor  must  Tele- 
silla  of  Argos  be  forgotten,  who  was  celebrated 
alike  for  her  lyric  poetry  and  her  Amazonian 
valour. 

But  while  the  period  was  one  of  great 
activity,  progress  and  development  in  all 
branches  of  literature,  art  and  philosophy,  it 
was  above  all  the  golden  age  of  Greek  lyric 
poetry.  From  the  time  of  Callinus  onward 
the  lyric  poetry  of  Greece  had  been  gradually 
developed  and  improved.  Innovations  had 
been  successfully  introduced,  the  range  of 
subjects  had  been  widened,  it  had  been  diversi- 
fied and  elaborated  in  form,  and  enriched 
with  new  metres  until  in  the  time  of  Anacreon 
it  had  reached  a  high  degree  of  perfection. 
Bacchylides,  Ibycus,  Simonides  and  Pindar 
were  Anacreon's  contemporaries,  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  classification  of  the  Alexandrine 
critics,  constituted  with  himself  five  of  the 
nine  prime  lyric  poets  of  Greece — ^the  other 
four  being  Alcman,  Stesichorus,  Alcaeus,  and 
Sappho. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  17 

Lyric  poetry  in  our  poet's  day  flourished 
under  the  patronage  of  the  tyrants  of  the 
various  Hellenic  states,  who,  whatever  their 
faults,  were  certainly  generous  patrons  of 
learning  and  letters.  After  Pindar's  time, 
however,  lyric  poetry  rapidly  declined  and 
deteriorated,  with  the  exception,  sole  and 
singular,  of  the  dithyramb,  which,  being 
employed  at  religious  rites  and  festivals, 
maintained  its  merit  and  importance  a  while 
longer.  The  chief  causes  of  the  declension 
and  decay  of  lyric  poetry  were  (i)  the  un- 
natural and  therefore  unwholesome  stimulus 
of  prize  competition ;  (2)  venality — it  came  to 
be  written  to  order  for  those  who  could  pay 
for  it ;  and  (3)  the  ever-increasing  subserviency 
of  the  verse  to  the  musical  accompaniment. 

The  meagre  memorials  of  the  personal 
history  of  Anacreon  which  have  descended  to 
posterity  are  not  by  any  means  commensurate 
with  his  genius  and  reputation;  nevertheless, 
more  is  known  of  the  Teian  poet  than  of  many 
of  his   contemporaries.     Sufficient   authentic 


i8  THE  ANACREONTEA 

data  certainly  exist  for  at  least  a  brief  sketch 
of  his  life;  not  a  little,  too,  is  known  of  his 
tastes,  traits,  character,  and  disposition,  and 
something  of  his  works.  Herodotus,  Diony- 
sius  of  Halicarnassus,  Horace,  Lucian,  Plato, 
the  elder  Pliny,  Pausanias,  Aristophanes, 
Athenaeus,  Suidas,  Strabo,  Stobaeus,  Cicero, 
Maximus  of  Tyre,  Valerius  Maximus,  Anti- 
pater  of  Sidon,  Critias  of  Athens,  and  Meleager 
of  Gadara  have  all  contributed  to  our  know- 
ledge of  the  Teian  bard.  Surely  these  are 
authors  of  repute,  and  worthy  of  credence. 

He  was  born  about  561  B.C.  at  Teos  (now 
Sighajik),  a  well-built  and  populous  maritime 
city  of  Ionia,  situate  on  the  south  side  of  the 
isthmus  connecting  the  peninsula  of  Mount 
Mimas  with  the  mainland  and  nearly  opposite 
Clazomenae.  Teos  was  founded  by  Athamas, 
and  hence  was  called  Athamantis  by  Anacreon 
(Strab.  XIV.  3).  This  city  was  renowned  for 
being  the  birthplace  of  Anacreon,  for  its  great 
and  splendid  temple  of  Dionysus,  and  for  the 
excellent  wine  produced  in  its  vicinity.     It 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  19 

was  surrounded  by  massive  walls,  possessed 
two  good  harbours,  and  a  fine  theatre. 

Notwithstanding  what  has  been  said  to  the 
contrary,  Anacreon  was  probably  not  of  noble 
strain,  and  certainly  the  assertion  that  he  was 
a  lineal  descendant  of  Codrus,  the  seventeenth 
and  last  king  of  Athens,  is  erroneous,  being 
founded  on  an  obviously  false  interpretation 
of  a  passage  ^  in  Plato's  mime,  entitled 
Charmides  or  On  Temperance,  This  error 
which  originated  with  Madame  Dacier  has 
been  refuted  by  the  learned  Bayle.  The 
name  of  the  poet's  father  has  been  variously 
reported  to  have  been  Scythinus,  Eumelus, 
Parthenius,  and  Aristocritus.  The  name  of 
his  mother  was  Eetia. 

Of  his  early  youth  few  trustworthy  parti- 
culars are  extant.  It  is  supposed  that  his 
education  was  the  best  his  time  afforded,  and 
that  he  applied  himself  diligently  to  his 
studies.     In  the  early  springtime  of  his  youth 

1  What  this  passage  does  say  is  that  Anacreon  celebrated 
the  beauty  of  Critias,  the  son  of  Dropidas. 


20  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Harpagus,  the  general  and  foster-father  of 
Cyrus,  led  an  expedition  against  the  con- 
federate cities  of  the  lonians  and  ^Eolians. 

The  Teians  fought  bravely  in  defence  of 
their  independence,  but  being  overwhelmed 
by  superior  numbers  of  the  enemy,  they 
relinquished  their  city,  and  settled  at  Abdera 
in  Thrace  about  545  b.c.  They  soon  became 
involved  in  broils  with  the  Thracians,  who 
resented  their  intrusion,  and  did  all  they 
could  to  give  them  trouble. 

In  some  of  these  melees  it  is  probable  that 
Anacreon  himself  took  part,  but  seemingly 
with  little  credit  to  himself,  for  like  Archi- 
lochus  in  a  battle  with  the  Thracians,  Alcaeus 
at  Sigeum,  and  Demosthenes  at  Chaeronea, 
on  one  occasion  at  least  he  threw  away  his 
shield  and  fled  for  his  life — a  course  of  conduct 
which  like  the  above-mentioned  poets  and 
orator  he  has  ingenuously  admitted,  in  two 
extant  fragments.^     Such  a  dereliction  from 

*  Having  thrown  away  my  shield  by  the  banks  of  the  fair- 
flowing  river,  I  indeed  fled  from  the  battle  like  a  cuckoo. — 
Frag.  XXVIII.-IX.  (Bergk). 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  21 

duty  was  considered  disgraceful  by  the 
ancients,  but  was  not  perhaps  really  repre- 
hensible where  the  rout  was  general,  and  it 
was  save  himself  who  can. 

Anacreon  rose  to  fame  as  a  poet  about 
530  B.C.  He  now  betook  himself  by  invita- 
tion to  the  gay  and  glittering  court  of  Poly- 
crates,  tyrant  of  Samos,  who  was  famed  for 
his  good  fortune,  magnificence,  generosity  and 
treachery.  Here  the  poet's  fine  parts  and 
refined  epicureanism  ensured  him  a  warm 
welcome. 

Herodotus  relates  ^  that  once  when  Poly- 
crates  gave  audience  to  a  herald  sent  by 
Oroetes,  satrap  of  Sardis,  to  prefer  a  request 
the  nature  whereof  is  unknown,  the  king  was 
reclining  on  a  couch  in  the  men's  apartment 
of  the  palace,  and  Anacreon  the  Teian  was 
with  him.  Polycrates,  either  to  show  his 
contempt  for  the  power  of  Oroetes,  or  it  may 
be  out  of  carelessness,  lay  all  the  time  the 
herald   was   speaking   with   his    face   turned 

1  Hist.  III.  121. 


22  THE  ANACREONTEA 

towards  the  wall,  and  when  the  speech  was 
ended  did  not  vouchsafe  any  reply. 

Anacreon  was  highly  honoured  by  Poly- 
crates,  with  whom  he  lived  on  terms  of  close 
friendship,  sharing  the  pleasures  and  being 
admitted  to  the  most  secret  councils  of  that 
monarch,  in  whose  praise  he  composed  many 
songs,  none  of  which  unfortunately  have 
escaped  the  malice  of  time.  It  is  said  that 
Anacreon  now  evinced  talents  for  political 
affairs  and  statecraft,  and  was  made  one  of 
the  privy  councillors  of  Polycrates,  whom  he 
prevailed  upon  to  carry  out  some  needed 
reforms  in  the  government  of  the  island. 

The  conduct  of  Anacreon,  however,  as  the 
courtier  encomiast  of  Polycrates  has  been 
contrasted  with  that  of  Pythagoras,  who  on 
his  return  from  his  travels  in  the  Orient, 
whither  he  had  journeyed  in  quest  of  know- 
ledge, finding  that  tyranny  subsisted  in  Samos, 
voluntarily  expatriated  himself  from  his  native 
island,  and  settling  in  southern  Italy  there 
finished  his  days.     Nevertheless,  it  is  but  fair 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  23 

to  state  that  the  songs  which  Anacreon  wrote 
in  praise  of  Polycrates  probably  came  less 
from  his  heart  than  those  in  which  he  cele- 
brated the  comely  youths  whom  the  Samian 
tyrant  had  attracted  to  his  voluptuous 
court. 

The  Platonic  philosopher,  Maximus  of  Tyre, 
who  flourished  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 
recounts^  that  the  poet  by  his  beneficent 
influence  mollified  the  stern  and  cruel  dis- 
position of  his  royal  patron.  The  same  author 
also  says  that  not  even  the  warning  of  Amasis, 
King  of  Egypt,  that  the  too  great  prosperity 
of  Polycrates  would  eventually  excite  the  envy 
of  the  gods  could  make  the  Samian  despot 
doubt  the  security  of  his  happiness,  when 
he  had  the  command  of  the  Ionian  sea, 
a  navy  so  powerful,  and  such  a  friend  as 
Anacreon. 

However,  the  poet's  royal  patron  when  in 
the  zenith  of  his  power  was  decoyed  with 
specious  promises  to  Magnesia  on  the  Maeander 

>  Max.  Tyr.  Diss.  XXXVII.  5. 


f< 


24  THE  ANACREONTEA 

by  the  envious  satrap  of  Sardis,  Oroetes,  who 
there   put   him   to   death   by   crucifixion   in 

522  B.C. 

Some  time  before  the  death  of  Polycrates 
Anacreon  had  repaired  to  Athens,  having  been 
invited  hither  by  Hipparchus,  one  of  the 
Pisistratidse,  who  seems  to  have  been  of 
almost  equal  power  in  the  state  with  his 
elder  brother  Hippias  who  had  succeeded  to 
the  tyranny. 

Pisistratus  had  been  instrumental  in  bring- 
ing Thespis  to  Athens,  and  to  him  posterity 
is  in  all  probability  indebted  for  the  preserva- 
tion and  recension  of  the  poems  of  Homer.^ 
From  his  father  Hipparchus  inherited  his  love 
of  literature  and  the  arts.  It  is  reported  that 
Hipparchus    sent    to    Samos    a    fifty -oared 

1  In  referring  to  Thespis  as  the  founder  of  Greek  tragedy, 
in  stating  that  Phrynichus  contributed  something  to  the  im- 
provement of  the  same,  and  in  asserting  that  Pisistratu- 
preserved  and  edited  the  poems  of  Homer,  I  have  followed 
the  opinions  of  the  ancient  Greeks  themselves.  The  states 
ment  that  Hippias  and  not  Hipparchus  succeeded  his  father 
in  the  tyranny  at  Athens,  is  supported  by  the  authority  of 
Herodotus  and  Thucydides. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  25 

trireme  whose  banks  of  lusty  rowers  sweep- 
ing the  sparkling  brine  sped  the  graceful  poet 
of  pleasure  over  the  blue  ^gean  to  the  City 
of  the  Violet  Crown.^ 

At  the  court  of  Hippias  Anacreon  was 
received  with  every  mark  of  honour  and 
esteem.  Here  as  at  Samos  the  poet's  works 
were  appreciated  as  they  deserved,  and  the 
social  environment  in  which  he  lived  was  no 
doubt  congenial  to  him.  In  the  glorious 
galaxy  of  poets  which  illumed  with  lamping 
lustre  the  Athenian  court,  Anacreon  shone  a 
bright  particular  star.  It  is  probable  also 
that  he  was  a  welcome  guest  in  the  homes  of 
the  great  Athenian  families. 

At  the  court  of  Polycrates  Anacreon  had 
enjoyed  the  society  of  Ibycus  of  Rhegium. 
At  Athens  he  gained  the  friendship  of  Xan- 
thippus,  father  of  Pericles,  and  of  Simonides 
of  Ceos,  surnamed  Melicertes,  the  reputed 
inventor  of  the  art  of  mnemonics,  and  the 
perfecter  of  the  elegy  and  the  epigram.     It  is 

»  Plat.  Hipparch.  p.  228.     Ed.  Steph. 


26  THE  ANACREONTEA 

also  probable  that  Anacreon  met  here  with 
the  dithyrambic  poet,  Lasus  of  Hermione, 
with  the  mystic  bard  and  interpreter  of 
oracles,  Onomacritus,  and  with  the  Orphic 
poet,  Zopyrus  of  Heraclea,  all  of  whom  lived 
under  the  patronage  of  Hipparchus,  at  the 
court  of  Hippias. 

Hipparchus  having  conceived  an  enmity 
against  Harmodius,  a  beautiful  youth  of  the 
Gephyraei  whose  friendship  he  had  in  vain 
endeavoured  to  attract  to  himself,  caused 
the  sister  of  the  former  to  be  chosen  as  one 
of  the  Canephorse  or  basket-carriers  in  a 
religious  procession,  and  when  she  presented 
herself  for  the  office  caused  her  to  be  rejected 
as  unworthy  of  it.  For  this  wanton  insult 
the  life  of  Hipparchus  was  plotted  against  by 
Harmodius  and  his  friend  Aristogeiton,  and 
by  them  he  was  slain  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Panathenaean  games,  514  b.c.  This  tragic 
event  was  celebrated  in  an  epigram  by 
Simonides,  and  was  the  theme  of  divers 
scolia,   one  of   the   most   famous   of  which, 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  27 

attributed  to  Callistratus,  has  been  preserved 
by  Athenaeus. 

It  has  been  conjectured,  but  quite  gratui- 
tously, that  Anacreon  after  the  assassination 
of  his  Maecenas  lived  for  a  time  in  Thessaly 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Aleuadae.  When 
he  left  Athens  he  returned  to  Teos,  to  which 
city  the  Teians  after  the  death  of  Cyrus  had 
been  permitted  to  return,  and  where  they 
were  now  living  unmolested.  But  at  length 
another  disturbance  in  the  state  caused  by 
the  attempt  of  Aristagoras,  tyrant  of  Miletus, 
to  throw  oif  the  Persian  yoke  (495  B.C.)  made 
flight  again  necessary,  and  he  retired  once 
more  to  Abdera,i  where  after  a  number  of 
years  spent  in  tranquillity  apart  from  the 
strife  and  turmoil  of  the  world,  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  highest  distinction  as  a  poet,  and 
the  esteem  and  honour  of  his  contemporaries 
he  died,  apparently  in  476  B.C.,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty-five  years. ^    The  manner  of  his 

*  Suidas,  s.v.  'AvaKpiuv  and  T^w. 

*  Lucian,  Macrob.  c.  26. 


28  THE  ANACREONTEA 

death  was  unusual.  It  is  related  that  he  was 
choked  by  a  grape  stone  as  he  was  regaling 
himself  with  some  new  wine.^ 

The  body  of  the  poet  was  brought  to  his 
native  city  where  his  obsequies  were  sumptu- 
ously performed,  and  an  imposing  monument 
erected  over  his  grave.  The  erratic  habits 
imputed  to  him  did  not  lessen  the  regard  and 
admiration  entertained  for  him  by  the  Athe- 
nians, who  after  his  demise  erected  on  the 
Acropolis  a  noble  statue  to  his  memory  which 
represented  him,  however,  as  an  old  man  in 
a  negligent  attitude,  shaken  by  wine,  crowned 
with  a  garland,  and  singing  to  his  lyre.  The 
orator  and  historian  Pausanias  himself  saw 
this  statue,  which  stood  near  those  of  Pericles 
and  Xanthippus,  and  has  faithfully  described 
it  in  his  Description  of  Greece.^ 

In  1835  there  was  discovered  on  Mount 
Calvo  in  the  Sabine  land  a  striking  statue 
which  by  a  consensus  of  opinion,  and  with 

1  Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  VII.  5,  et  Val.  Max.  IX.  12,  §  8. 
'  I,  25. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  29 

strong  probability  has  been  asserted  to  re- 
present Anacreon.  This  statue,  which  bears 
considerable  similitude  to  the  figure  of  Ana- 
creon on  a  Teian  coin,  is  now  in  the  Villa 
Borghese  at  Rome.  The  poet  somewhat  stout 
of  habit  is  seated  at  ease  in  an  arm-chair  with 
his  feet  crossed.  He  is  clad  in  a  garment  of 
thick  and  soft  material,  and  wears  richly- 
adorned  sandals.  The  eyes  which  probably 
were  of  precious  stones  are  missing.  Only 
the  posture  of  the  upper  part  of  the  body, 
and  of  the  right  arm  suggests  the  passionate 
verve  whereof  the  poet  was  capable.  No 
prominence  has  been  given  by  the  sculptor  to 
the  alleged  erotic  and  Dionysian  characteristics 
of  the  poet  which  are  in  evidence  in  the  statue 
described  by  Pausanias,  and  by  Leonidas  of 
Tarentum  in  an  epigram  in  the  Anthology. 
This  work  of  art  has  been  ascribed,  but  on 
insufficient  grounds,  to  Cresilas,  the  con- 
temporary of  Phidias. 

In  an  epigram  inscribed  in  uncial  characters 
on  an  old  marble  and  falsely  attributed  to 


30  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Theocritus  it  is  said  that  there  was  a  famous 
statue  of  Anacreon  in  Teos. 

Anacreon  is  represented  on  certain  Teian 
coins,  with  his  lyre  in  his  hand,  sometimes 
sitting  ^  and  sometimes  standing. 

He  was  an  initiate  in  the  Dionysian 
mysteries.  To  him,  as  to  Terpander,  has 
been  ascribed  the  invention  of  the  barbiton. 

In  the  Greek  Anthology  there  are  no  less 
than  fifteen  epigrams  on  Anacreon,  who  there- 
fore receives  more  tributes  in  that  florilegium 
than  any  other  poet.^  Some  of  them  are  of 
great  beauty. 

Besides  Polycrates,  Hipparchus,  Xan- 
thippus,  Simonides  of  Ceos,  Critias  the 
nephew  of  Solon,  and  perhaps  Ibycus,  the 
poet  numbered  among  his  chiefest  friends 
Bathyllus,  a  beautiful  Samian  youth  in  whose 
honour  Polycrates  caused  to  be  set  up  in  the 
temple  of  Hera  at  Samos  a  chryselephantine 
statue  which  depicted  him  in  the  guise  of 

»  Visconti,  Icon,  Grec.  PI.  III.  6. 
•  See  Additional  Poems,  p.  162  et  seq. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  31 

Apollo  playing  on  the  lyre.  Smerdis,  a  young 
Thracian,  was  also  a  well-beloved  friend  of 
Anacreon.  iElian  relates  ^  that  once  Poly- 
crates  in  a  fit  of  jealousy  cut  off  Smerdis' 
hair,  but  Phavorinus,  citing  a  fragment  of 
Anacreon  on  this  subject,  would  lead  us  to 
infer  that  the  young  man  did  it  himself. 
Meleager  of  Gadara  and  Antipater  of  Sidon 
speak  of  Eurypyle  as  the  innamorata  of 
Anacreon,  and  her  faithlessness  seems  to  have 
inspired  the  pasquinade  on  Artemon  whereof 
a  fragment  is  the  only  specimen  we  possess 
of  the  poet's  satiric  powers.  Megistes,  Cleo- 
bulus  and  Leucaspis  are  also  mentioned  as 
his  friends,  but  who  they  were  is  dark  and 
uncertain. 

Some  of  the  stories  which  have  been  re- 
hearsed of  the  Swan  of  Teos  do  not  rest  upon 
sufficient  evidence  to  entitle  them  to  credence, 
but  they  are  all  in  keeping  with  what  is  known 
of  the  poet  of  hedonism.  Such  indeed  is  the 
apocryphal  tale  of  the  loves  of  Anacreon  and 

1  Var,  Hist.  IX.  4. 


32  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Sappho.  The  assertion  that  Anacreon  was 
one  of  the  lovers  of  Sappho  is  founded  upon 
the  testimonies  of  Chamaeleon  of  Pontus  who 
wrote  essays  on  the  poets,  and  Hermesianax 
of  Colophon,  who  wrote  three  books  of  elegiac 
poetry  dedicated  to  his  mistress,  Leontium. 
But  although  it  is  entirely  appropriate  that 
two  such  choice  gifted  and  aesthetic  spirits 
should  have  been  lovers,  the  relation  of  such 
an  amour  savours  too  much  of  an  anachronism 
to  be  seriously  entertained,  for  as  Athenaeus 
has  pointed  out,i  the  Teian  bard  lived  in  the 
time  of  Polycrates  and  Cyrus,  but  Sappho 
lived  in  the  reign  of  Alyattes,  father  of  Croesus. 
The  story  of  the  romantic  attachment  of 
.  Alcaeus  and  Sappho,  supported  as  it  is  by 
>^  the  authority  of  Aristotle,  is  more  within 
I  the  limits  of  probability.  In  a  fragment  pre- 
served by  Hephaestion  Anacreon  is  supposed 
to  have  referred  to  the  tradition  of  the  tragic 
fate  of  the  Lesbian  poetess. 

^  Deipnosoph.  XIII.  72. 


\ 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  33 


II 

His  Character  and  Turn  of  Mind 

To  be  able  to  go  outside  of  one's  life,  opinions 
and  experience  is  one  of  the  prerogatives  of 
genius;  to  form  an  estimate,  therefore,  of  an 
author  from  his  works  is  sometimes  fallacious. 
But  as  Anacreon  reveals  himself  more  or  less 
in  his  writings  we  may  to  some  extent  seek 
in  his  all  too  scanty  reliquiae  as  well  as  in  the 
testimonies  of  ancient  writers  for  information 
in  regard  to  his  sentiments  and  turn  of  mind, 
his  habits,  temperament  and  tastes. 

Anacreon's  disposition  was  gay  and 
sprightly,  and  he  possessed  in  a  high  degree 
the  luxurious  grace,  abandon  and  tincture  of 
levity  which  were  traits  of  the  Ionian  char- 
acter. He  envied  not  the  prosperity  of  others. 
He  was  a  despiser  of  weighty  employments 
and  the  perishing  lustre  of  the  world.     He 


34  THE  ANACREONTEA 

cared  little  for  the  pomp  and  power  of  princes. 
The  following  anecdote  out  of  Stobaeus  shows 
how  foreign  to  him  was  the  desire  of  riches. 
He  once,  having  received  a  present  from  Poly- 
crates  of  five  talents  of  gold  (about  3^970),  was 
so  embarrassed  with  solicitude  concerning  his 
treasure,  that  he  was  unable  to  sleep  for  two 
successive  nights.  Thereupon  he  returned 
the  gift  to  his  royal  patron  with  this  apology, 
that  however  valuable  the  sum  might  be  it 
was  not  a  sufficient  price  for  the  trouble  and 
anxiety  of  keeping  it.  Although  a  great  lover 
of  pleasure  he  maintained  throughout  the 
course  of  a  long  life  the  enviable  reputation 
of  being  a  just  man,  free  from  avarice,  and 
free  from  ambition. 

With  Anacreon  love  was  a  passion  of  the 
soul.  He  devoted  his  time  to  poetry,  music, 
gaiety  and  pleasure,  and  when  he  swept  the 
sounding  strings  of  his  lyre,  love,  wine  and 
beauty  were  his  favourite  themes.  Being 
crowned  with  floral  anadems,  anointed  with 
fragrant   smerle   and    reclined    on    roses,    he 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  35 

delighted  to  quaff  care-exiling  wine  while  it 
sparkled  in  the  cup,  and  to  enjoy  the  golden 
present  at  ease  and  with  a  tranquil  mind. 

Indeed,  the  character  of  Anacreon,  his  mode 
of  living  and  the  modicum  of  philosophy  to  be 
found  in  his  works  seem  to  have  had  much  in 
common  with  the  hedonic  philosopher  Aris- 
tippus,  the  founder  of  the  Cyrenaic  sect,  who, 
however,  did  not  flourish  until  the  time  of 
Socrates,  of  whom  he  was  a  disciple. 

Pleasure  was  the  sovereign  good  of  both 
poet  and  philosopher.  The  maxim  of  Aris- 
tippus,  Vivamus^  dum  licet  esse^  hene^  might 
well  have  served  for  the  motto  of  Anacreon. 
Worthy,  too,  of  the  Cyrenean  philosopher  was 
the  excuse  which  when  charged  with  hymn- 
ing the  reigning  beauties  of  the  day,  rather 
than  the  orthodox  gods  and  goddesses,  the 
poet  according  to  the  scholiast  on  Pindar  ^  is 
said  to  have  made  in  these  words :  "  But  are 
not  these  also  lesser  divinities  ?  " 

The  character  of  Anacreon  also  bears  some 

^Uthm.  II.  I. 


36  THE  ANACREONTEA 

points  of  resemblance  to  that  of  Petronius 
Arbiter.  Like  the  Roman  voluptuary  Ana- 
creon  was  a  cultured  and  gallant  gentleman, 
the  canon  of  good  taste,  having  little  in 
common  with  the  prqfanum  vulgus.  Like 
Petronius  the  Teian  poet  possessed  some 
admirable  qualities  of  heart  and  soul,  and 
manifested  on  occasion  capacity  for  affairs, 
independence  of  spirit  and  integrity  of  conduct 
in  grave  matters. 

No  doubt  Anacreon  shrank  from  everything 
coarse  and  brutal,  and  avoided  as  far  as 
possible  whatever  was  painful  and  unpleasant. 
His  manners  were  charming,  elegant  and  re- 
fined. He  disliked  anything  extreme  or  in 
bad  taste.  As  companions  he  much  preferred 
the  easy-tempered  to  those  of  harsh  and  jar- 
ring dispositions.  He  was  a  favourite  with 
the  fair  sex  and  in  the  life  of  symposiums.^ 
In  the  true  spirit  of  a  voluptuary  his  aim  was 
to  enjoy  agreeably  to  his  taste;  and  if  in 
some  passages  of  his  poems  the  brevity  of 

*  Critias  in  Ath.  XIII.  600  d. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  37 

life,  the  surety  of  death  and  the  fugacity  of 
time  were  considered,  it  was  not  for  the 
purpose  of  moral  reflections,  but  rather  to 
enhance  the  value  of  sybaritic  delights,  and  to 
prompt  the  devotees  of  pleasure  to  seize  and 
enjoy  the  present  hour.  There  is  to  be  found 
therefore  in  Anacreon  a  type  of  the  refined 
and  elegant  man  of  pleasure  whose  life  and 
character  were  vividly  reflected  in  his  works. 

Like  Ibycus  Anacreon  was  paramountly  a 
court  poet.  It  is  not  probable  that  after  the 
death  of  Hipparchus  he  ever  returned  to 
Athens  or  would  have  been  content  to  live 
under  democratic  institutions.  In  this  he 
was  unlike  Simonides,  who  became  the  chosen 
poet  of  the  Athenian  demos  and  celebrated 
the  great  events  of  the  Persian  wars. 

The  poet  is  called  the  wise  Anacreon  by 
Plato,^  but  it  is  probable  that  the  word  o-o<^ds 
like  the  Latin  doctus  was  not  infrequently 
bestowed  upon  poets  and  other  worthies  as 
a  title  of  respect.     Be  this  as  it  may,  the 

*  'AvaKpioPTOs  rod  ao(f>oO,  Phad.  235  c. 


38  THE  ANACREONTEA 

bestowal  of  this  epithet  on  the  poet  by  Plato 

/    has  led  Fontenelle  in  one  of  the  Dialogues  of 

)    the  Dead  to  represent  Anacreon  and  Aristotle 

^    )   disputing  for  the  prize  of  wisdom  which  he 

/    awards  to  the  Swan  of  Teos. 

Owing  to  the  manifold  poetical  levities, 
many  of  them  personal  and  subjective,  which 
have  been  falsely  assigned  to  Anacreon,  much 
too  low  an  estimate  has  been  often  formed  of 
his  character.  This  unjustifiable  conception 
of  the  character  of  Anacreon,  which  un- 
fortunately to  some  extent  still  prevails  even 
at  the  present  time,  has  been  very  well 
expressed  in  a  quatrain  by  Le  Fevre,  which 
occurs  in  some  verses  prefixed  to  his  Poetes 
GrecSy  and  which  is  quoted  in  Moore's  notes 
to  his  version  of  the  Odes  oj  Anacreon  : 

"  Aussi-c'est  pour  cela  que  la  posterite 
L'a  toujours  justement  d'age  en  age  chante 
Comme  un  franc  goguenard,  ami  de  goinfrerie, 
Ami  de  billets-doux  et  de  badinerie." 

.Anacreon  has  been  charged  in  divers 
quarters    with   licentiousness    and   inebriety. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  39 

It  has  also  been  said  that  his  erratic  habits 
finally  unfitted  him  for  little  else  than  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure.  JElian,^  however,  denies 
that  he  lived  in  debauchery.  Athenaeus  ^ 
remarks  that  he  was  sober  and  virtuous  when 
he  wrote;  and  certainly  there  is  no  evidence 
in  any  of  his  poetical  remains  that  they  were 
composed  when  the  vine -leaf  was  in  the 
ascendant. 

Moreover,  it  is  not  probable  that  had 
Anacreon  been  greatly  addicted  to  profligacy 
and  excesses  he  would  ever  have  attained  to 
such  a  high  position  in  the  republic  of  letters, 
or  have  lived  to  such  a  green  old  age.  If  we 
are  prone  to  condemn  his  morals,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  worship  of  Eros, 
Aphrodite  and  Dionysus  was  part  of  the 
religion  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  and  that  the 
standard,  of  ethics  which  obtained  in  the 
poet's  day  was  far  different  from  that  of 
modern  times. 

1  V.  H.  IX.  4.  Deipnosoph.  X.  33. 


40  THE  ANACREONTEA 


III 

His  Works  and  Influence;  the 
Anacreontea 

Only  an  exceeding  small  portion  of  the  works 
of  the  renowned  Anacreon  has  been  spared 
to  us  by  the  fates,  and  probably  by  the  ruth- 
less hand  of  ecclesiastical  vandalism.  It  is 
asserted  by  Alcyonius  ^  (Italian  savant,  1486- 
1527)  on  the  authority  of  a  statement  delivered 
orally  to  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  afterwards  Pope 
Leo  X.,  by  the  Greek  grammarian  Demetrius 
Chalcondylas,  that  towards  the  close  of  the 
fourth  century  of  the  Christian  era  the 
Byzantine  fathers  of  that  early  age  destroyed 
by  fire  the  works  of  many  of  the  ancient 
Greek  poets,  especially  of  those  who  wrote 
on  erotic  and  convivial  themes.  It  is  said 
that  in  this  literary  holocaust  offered  up  upon 

1  De  Exilio.     Ed.  Lips.  1707,  p.  69. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  41 

the  altars  of  vanity  and  misguided  zeal 
perished  not  only  the  works  of  Anacreon, 
but  those  of  Sappho,  Alcaeus,  Menander, 
Erinna,  Bion,  Mimnermus  and  of  others.  In 
their  place  were  substituted  the  works  of 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  sometime  bishop  of 
Constantinople.  Brodeau,  a  French  critic 
and  archaeologist  (i 500-1 563),  in  his  com- 
mentaries on  the  Greek  Anthology  corrobo- 
rates the  assertion  of  Chalcondylas. 

Three  books  of  the  odes  of  Anacreon  were 
extant  in  the  lifetime  of  Horace.  Five  books 
of  odes  ascribed  to  Anacreon  were  in  existence 
in  the  time  of  Suidas.^  That  lexicographer 
seems  to  have  flourished  in  the  tenth  century 
after  Christ.  At  any  rate  it  is  tolerably 
certain  that  he  lived  much  later  than  Stephen 
of  Byzantium  (sixth  century  a.d.)  and  long 
before  Eustachius,  who  died  in  1198  a.d.  If 
the  aforesaid  books  of  odes  were  genuine 
productions  of  Anacreon,  the  statement  that 
his  works  were  burnt  by  certain  early  Greek 

1 IX.  12,  §  8. 


42  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ecclesiastics  becomes  null  and  void.  But  it 
is  very  probable  that  these  five  books  of 
Anacreon  (so-called)  were  poems  written  by 
others  in  imitation  of  him. 

Besides  paraenia  and  scolia  Anacreon  wrote 
hymns  in  honour  of  the  gods,  elegies,  encomia, 
dithyrambs,  iambics  and  epigrams.  Horace 
mentions  a  poem  of  his  on  the  rivalry  of  Circe 
and  Penelope  in  the  affections  of  Ulysses.^ 
He  was  also  the  author  of  a  medicinal  treatise 
and  a  poem  on  sleep.  Fulgentius  alludes  to 
a  work  of  his  on  the  war  between  Jupiter  and 
the  Titans,  and  also  to  one  on  the  consecra- 
tion of  the  Eagle.  In  honour  of  Polycrates 
and  Hipparchus  he  composed  many  songs. 
It  was  particularly  in  his  allegorical  fictions, 
where  his  height  of  wit  and  fertility  of  in- 
vention were  exhibited  to  great  advantage, 
that  he  bore  off  the  palm  of  excellence  from 
all  competitors.  Several  examples  of  this 
style  of  writing  which  it  is  said  Anacreon  was 
the  first  to  introduce  are  to  be  found  in  the 

^  Od.  I.  17. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  43 

Anacreontea,  and  they  have  been  imitated  by 
many  later  poets  with  varying  degrees  of 
success. 

Not  only  was  Anacreon  widely  known  in 
his  lifetime,  but  his  posthumous  fame  was 
great.  Athenaeus  ^  says  that  in  his  day 
Anacreon's  name  was  in  everybody's  mouth. 
Gradually,  however,  the  light  and  graceful 
Anacreontea  superseded  his  genuine  works. 
Scholars  continued  to  cite  passages  of  Ana- 
creon to  elucidate  some  point  of  grammar  or 
metre,  and  antiquaries  consulted  his  pages 
in  regard  to  old  customs  and  manners.^  At 
last  his  works  were  either  lost  or  wantonly 
destroyed. 

The  prolific  Didymus  the  grammarian,  who 
was  the  reputed  author  of  more  than  four 
thousand  books,  wrote  on  the  morals  of  Ana- 
creon; Chamaeleon  of  Pontus  indited  a  treatise 
on  our  poet;  Zenodotus  of  Ephesus  and 
Aristarchus   composed   commentaries   on  his 

*  JIafflv  iffTi  didaTOfidros,  Deipnosoph.  XIII.  74. 
*Bullen's  Anacreon,  Introduct.  p.  xxiii. 


44  THE  ANACREONTEA 

poems,  but  unhappily  the  works  of  all  these 
pristine  writers  have  perished. 

Anacreon  was  influenced  by  the  Lesbian 
poetry,  by  the  scolia  of  Pythermus,  and  prob- 
ably by  the  works  of  Alcman  and  Archilochus. 
Anacreon  makes  use  of  the  usual  lyric  metres 
such  as  the  choriambic,  Ionic  a  minore^  and 
the  logacedic.  The  Ionic  dimeter  catalectic 
of  the  Anacreontea  is  only  employed  once  in 
the  genuine  fragments.  He  only  very  occa- 
sionally used  the  four-line  stanza  so  frequent 
in  Sappho  and  Alcaeus. 

The  collection  of  sixty  poems  which  formerly 
passed  as  genuine  relics  of  Anacreon  are  pre- 
served in  pp.  674-692  of  the  Anthology  of 
Constantine  Cephalas,  better  known  as  the 
Palatine  Anthology.  This  valuable  codex 
was  purchased  in  Italy  about  1550  by  Dr. 
John  Clement,  a  gentleman  of  the  entourage 
of  Sir  Thomas  More.  Fifty-five  of  these  Ana- 
creontics, extant  only  in  the  Anthology  of 
Cephalas,  were  first  given  to  the  world  at 
Paris  in    1554  by  the  scholar-printer  Henri 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  45 

Estienne,  to  whom  the  revival  of  classical 
learning  owed  so  much,  with  his  own  notes 
and  a  Latin  translation  which  has  been 
attributed  on  insufficient  grounds  to  Jean 
Dorat.  Of  the  residual  five  odes,  some  he 
rejected  altogether,  and  others  he  relegated 
to  an  appendix. 

Estienne  seems  to  have  borrowed  the  MS. 
from  Dr.  Clement.  It  subsequently  found  its 
way  to  the  library  of  the  Counts  Palatine  at 
Heidelberg,  where  it  was  examined  about  the 
end  of  the  year  1606  by  the  celebrated  young 
classicist,  Claude  Salmasius.  When  Heidel- 
berg was  taken  in  1623  by  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria,  this,  with  other  precious  codices, 
was  sent  to  Rome  as  a  present  to  Pope 
Gregory  XV.  Here  it  was  rebound  in  two 
parts  and  both,  in  1797,  were  brought  to  Paris 
after  the  Peace  of  Tolentino  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Directoire.  In  1816  the  larger 
volume  was  restored  to  Heidelberg  where  it 
still  reposes  in  the  University  Library,  but 
the  smaller,  containing  the  odes  of  Anacreon 


46  THE  ANACREONTEA 

and  the  Anacreontea,  remained  in  the  Biblio- 
theque  Nationale.  The  Palatine  Anthology 
was  not  published  until  1772,  when  it  was 
included  in  Brunck's  Analecta  Veterum 
Grcecorum, 

The  reasons  why  the  Anacreontea  are  con- 
sidered apocryphal  are:  (i)  With  one  excep- 
tion they  are  not  found  in  the  citations  from 
Anacreon  in  ancient  writers;  (2)  they  are  not 
written  in  the  pure  Ionic  dialect  in  which 
Anacreon  wrote;  (3)  on  account  of  generalities 
which  they  contain;  and  (4)  because  of  the 
later  conception  of  Eros  found  therein.  The 
authenticity  of  these  odes  was  denied  or 
doubted  by  a  long  line  of  scholars  and  literati 
from  Robertellus  to  Thomas  Moore;  and  the 
opinions  of  Stark  and  Bergk  finally  caused 
them  to  be  rejected  on  all  hands  as  genuine 
remains  of  Anacreon. 

These  poems,  erst  miscalled  the  odes  of 
Anacreon  and  now  known  as  the  Anacreontea, 
are  familiar  to  many  English  readers  through 
the  translations  of  Cowley,  Stanley,  Greene, 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  47 

Fawkes,  Urquhart,  Bourne,  Addison,  Moore, 
Bryant,  Arnold  and  others.  They  are  written 
in  hemiambi  and  Ionic  dimeters.  The  earliest 
of  them  are  surmised  to  date  back  to  the  third 
century  B.C.  Some  of  them  probably  belong 
to  the  Alexandrine  period;  others  perhaps  to 
the  age  of  Nonnus,  who  flourished  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixth  century  a.d.;  and  still 
others  seem  to  be  as  late  as  the  eighth  or 
ninth  centuries  of  our  era.  Some  of  these 
poems  passed  as  genuine  compositions  of 
Anacreon  as  early  as  the  time  of  Aulus  Gel- 
lius,  who  flourished  under  Hadrian  and  the 
Antonines. 

Notwithstanding  the  depreciatory  attitude 
assumed  towards  the  Anacreontea  by  Stark  ^ 
and  Bergk,^  they  are — many  of  them — very 
beautiful,  and  have  conspicuous  merits. 
Moreover,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  it  is 
through  the  Anacreontea  and  not  by  his  scanty 
but   precious   fragments   that   Anacreon   has 

^  Quastiones  Anacreontics.     Lips.  1846. 

*  Poeta  Lyrici  Graci  (ed.  1900),  Vol.  IV.  p.  278. 


48  THE  ANACREONTEA 

influenced  so  greatly  the  erotic  and  symposiac 
poetry  of  many  times  and  lands,  and  has  so 
often  received  the  sincere  flattery  of  imitation. 
However,  as  Greek  poems  they  are,  of  course, 
inferior  to  the  genuine  relics  of  Anacreon. 
They  have  undergone  vicissitudes,  and  have 
been  added  to  at  various  times  by  divers 
hands. 

The  Greek  language,  rich  in  inflection, 
symbolic  words  and  gossamer-like  particles, 
is  one  of  the  most  perfect,  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  tongues;  and  no  sweeter  and 
more  beautiful  specimens  of  Greek  lyric  poetry 
are  extant  than  the  fragments  of  Anacreon. 
The  Ionic  dialect  wherein  he  wrote  has  a 
charm  and  softness  particularly  its  own.  It 
is  especially  well  adapted  to  the  harmony  of 
lyric  verse. 

Of  what  then  do  the  genuine  literary 
remains  of  Anacreon  consist  ?  Of  one  com- 
plete ode,  and  ninety-two  fragments,^  which 
it  is  fortunate  have  come  down  to  us  in  all 

*  Bergk,  op.  cit. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  49 

probability  pretty  much  as  they  were  written 
by  the  elegant  hand  of  the  dead  poet,  which 
crumbled  into  dust  so  many  centuries  agone. 
Seventeen  epigrams  which  exist  in  the  Palatine 
Anthology  are  attributed  to  Anacreon  on 
somewhat  doubtful  authority,  and  are  edited 
with  the  fragments  by  Bergk.  The  only 
entire  ode  (A  Prayer  to  Artemis)  which  has 
come  down  to  us  is  quite  brief  (only  eight 
lines)  and  so  are  all  the  fragments.  The 
longest  of  these  (on  Artemon)  consists  of 
twenty-two  lines,  and  a  number  of  them 
contain  only  a  few  words.  They  have  been 
preserved  by  ancient  authors  and  scholiasts 
on  Greek  poets. 

The  verse  of  Anacreon  is  well  described  by 
two  phrases  of  Horace — non  elaboratum  ad 
pedem^  and  simplex  munditiis.^  His  style  is 
characterised  by  conciseness  and  lucidity,  and 
is  free  from  ambiguity,  conceits  and  mere- 
tricious adornment.  Flexible  grace,  elegance, 
clarity,  simplicity,  facility,  animation,  golden 
1  Ep.  XIV.  2  Od.  I.  5. 


so  THE  ANACREONTEA 

cadence,  lightness  of  touch,  delicacy  of  senti- 
ment and  artistic  restraint  are  all  traits  of 
the  Teian  muse.  His  numbers  are  pleasingly 
modulated,  and  flow  with  a  sweet  melody, 
rolling  persuasion  Qikova-a  Treidovs),  like  the 
stream  in  the  twenty-second  ode  of  the  Ana- 
creontea.  Aristophanes  says  of  him  as  of 
Ibycus,  that  he  softened  melody.^     Anacreon 

has  been  called  *HSv/AeA^s  'AvaKpiaiv,  a-vinroa-Lwv 
kpidiariia,  yvvaiKStv  -^Trepd^revixa  by  Critias  of  Athens, 

and  blandus,  suaviloquus,  dulcis  Anacreon  by 
Scaliger. 

Of  the  alleged  literary  faults  of  Anacreon 
little  or  nothing  has  been  said,  as  I  am 
shrewdly  of  opinion  that  what  he  wrote  was 
perfect  or  nearly  perfect  of  its  kind.  In  his 
poetry  can  be  found  no  straining  after  effect, 
nothing  far-fetched  or  dearly  bought.  The 
brief  fragments  of  his  hymns  which  remain 
show  that  his  muse  was  capable  of  higher 
flights  than  the  subjects  which  often  engaged 
his  attention  required. 

■jXu/tffety  apfxovlas,  Thesm,  162. 


INTRODUCTORY  ESSAY  51 

In  fire  and  passion  Anacreon  was  surpassed 
by  Sappho;  in  loftiness  of  thought  and 
majesty  by  Pindar;  in  tenderness  and  exalted 
religious  feeling  by  Simonides;  in  ardour  of 
sentiment  and  expression  by  Ibycus;  in  deep 
love  of  nature  by  Theocritus ;  but  in  his  own 
peculiar  province — that  of  a  melic  poet  sing- 
ing in  light  and  flowing  strains  of  beauty, 
love,  and  wine,  few  have  attained  to  the 
measure  of  the  fullness  of  the  stature  of 
Anacreon.  Well  indeed  for  us  could  we  trans- 
fuse into  our  lives  some  of  the  light,  beauty 
and  inimitable  grace  of  his  immortal  muse! 


ODE  I 

On  His  Lyre  ^ 

I  FAIN  would  of  the  Atreidae  sing, 
And  of  the  mighty  Theban  King,^ 
But  of  my  lyre  each  tender  tone 
Breathes  love  and  soft  desire  alone. 
I  late  restrung  my  rebellious  lyre, 
And  straight  amain  I  did  aspire 
To  sing  of  deeds  of  high  emprise 

1  This  ode  is  usually  placed  first  in  editions  and  transla- 
tions. It  is,  however,  the  twenty-third  in  the  order  of  the 
Vatican  MS.  It  has  been  frequently  imitated,  especially  by 
erotic  poets.  It  conveys  the  idea  that  genius,  to  produce 
successful  results,  must  not  be  forced  to  undertake  uncon- 
genial labours.  "  A  poet  writing  against  his  genius,"  says 
Spence  the  critic,  "  will  be  like  a  prophet  without  his  aflftatus." 
The  ode  has  been  thought  to  be  peculiarly  designed  as  an 
introduction  to  all  the  rest  of  the  odes;  it,  however,  charac- 
terises the  genius  of  the  Teian  inadequately,  as  wine,  the 
burden  of  his  lays,  is  not  mentioned  in  it. 

.  .  .  cum  multi  Venerem  confundere  mero 
Praecipuit  lyrici  Teia  Musa  senis. — Ovid. 

*  Cadmus. 

53 


S4  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Of  old  done  by  the  great  and  wise; 
And  of  the  glorious  victories 
Achieved  by  stout-thewed  Heracles. 
But  vain  my  efforts;   not  for  me 
The  laurels  of  the  epopee. 
Then  heroes,  kings,  a  long  farewell! — 
To  love  I  consecrate  my  shell.^ 

1  The  songs  of  the  ancients  were  sung  to  the  lyre,  which  was 
sometimes  made  to  respond  antiphonally  to  the  emotions  of 
the  singer.  To  Anacreon  the  invention  of  the  barbiton  is  by 
some  ascribed. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  55 

ODE  II 

On  Women 

Nature  to  bulls  has  given  horns,  and  hoofs 

to  steeds, 
To  lions  a  gaping  chasm  of  teeth  to  prey  on 

weaker  breeds; 
To  birds  to  fly,  to  fish  to  swim  in  stream  and 

sea, 
Swiftness  to  hares,  and  strength  to  men  to 

battle  valiantly. 
No  more  such  gifts  she  had  for  woman.    What 

did  she  do  ? 
She  gave  her  beauty,  mightiest  dower  and  best 

in  lieu 
Of  all  our  spears  and  swords,  that,  yielding, 

'fore  her  fall. 
For  lovely  woman  with  her  charms  can  conquer 

all.i 

1  The  sentiment  of  this  little  ode  is  natural  and  beautiful, 
and  has  been  imitated  by  many  succeeding  writers.     Lord 

£ 


56  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Byron  has  in  the  following  beautiful  passage  a  similar  idea 
to  that  contained  in  the  latter  part  of  the  ode : 

Oh !  too  convincing — dangerously  dear — 
In  woman's  eye  the  unanswerable  tear! 
That  weapon  of  her  weakness  she  can  wield, 
To  save,  subdue — at  once  her  spear  and  shield. 

Corsair,  Canto  II.  15.     (Thomas  Bourne.) 


THE  ANACREONTEA  57 

ODE  III 

Eros  Benighted^ 

'TwAS  on  the  midnight  dreary, 
When  north  stars  faintly  peep, 

And  man  with  toil  grown  weary 
Seeks  the  soft  breast  of  sleep — 

The  god  of  love  surprising 

Me,  knocked  at  my  barred  door. 

*Tliis  poem  for  beauty  and  invention  is  unsurpassed. 
None  of  the  odes  has  been  more  frequently  translated  than 
this  one.  Besides  those  who  have  published  English  ver- 
sions of  the  odes,  Herrick,  Ambrose  Phillips,  Hughes,  Prior, 
Elton,  and  Lord  Byron  have  translated  it — how  many  others 
have  done  so,  I  wot  not.  It  is  not  among  the  odes  rendered 
by  Cowley  and  Broome. 

Henry  Sienkiewicz  in  Quo  Vadis — a  novel  which  rings  and 
glitters  with  the  fierce  sounds  and  fiery  splendours  of  Neronian 
Rome — describes  Petronius  Arbiter  as  commanding  in  his 
dying  moments  this  song  to  be  sung  by  minstrels  to  the 
accompaniment  of  citharae.  The  passage  in  which  this  ode 
is  referred  to  (not  altogether  correctly,  however)  is  as  follows : 
"  They  sang  Harmodius;  next  the  song  of  Anacreon  re- 
sounded— that  song  in  which  he  complained  that  on  a  time 
he  had  found  Aphrodite's  boy  chilled  and  weeping  under 
trees;  that  he  brought  him  in,  warmed  him,  dried  his  wings, 
and  the  ungrateful  child  pierced  his  heart  with  an  arrow — 
from  that  moment  peace  had  deserted  the  poet." 


S8  THE  ANACREONTEA 

"  Who  is  it  ?  "  said  I,  rising, 

"  That  lets  me  dream  no  more  ?  " 
But  Eros  says,  "  I  only 

Am  a  belated  child, 
I  have  wandered  cold  and  lonely 

In  moonless  night  and  wild." 
Hearing  these  words,  with  pity 

My  heart  beat  for  his  woes; 
I  ope  the  door — a  pretty 

Winged  boy  my  lamplight  shows. 
Cold  shiver  after  shiver 

Ran  through  his  body  fair; 
A  tiny  bow  and  quiver 

The  little  fellow  bare. 
I  soothed  him  with  caresses, 

Him  by  the  fire  I  placed; 
The  water  from  his  tresses 

I  wrung;  his  hands  embraced. 
But  when  he  had  grown  warm,  he 

Says,  "  I  will  try  my  bow; 
I  fear  by  weather  stormy 

The  string  is  injured  now." 
He  bends  it  then  and  through  my 


THE  ANACREONTEA  59 

Liver  ^  a  shaft  he  wings, 
He  little  cares  although  my 

Wound  like  a  gadfly  stings. 
Up  leaps  he  laughing  loudly, 

A  mocking  laugh  laughs  he, 
And  flushed  with  triumph  proudly 

Says,  "  Host,  wish  joy  to  me ! 
My  bow  indeed  intact  is : 

Good-by,  for  we  must  part; 
But  as  for  you  the  fact  is 

You'll  feel  pain  in  your  heart.'* 

» The  ancients  believed  the  liver  to  be  the  seat  of  the 
affections. 


6o  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  IV 

On  His  Tastes 

Stretched  on  tender  leaves  of  myrtle. 
And  on  fragrant  flowers  of  lotus, 
I  desire  at  ease  to  revel. 
Let  fair  Eros  with  his  tunic 
Girded  round  his  shoulders  serve  me 
With  red  wine  in  foaming  goblets. 
Mortal  life  from  mortals  passes 
Swift  as  chariot  wheels  revolving; 
Soon  at  best  the  grave  will  hold  us, 
Soon  our  bones  dissolve  to  dry  dust. 
What  availeth  rich  libation 
Outpoured  for  a  vain  eidolon  ? 
While  I  live,  of  wine  and  perfume 
Grant  me  plenty,  and  with  roses 
Crown  my  head;   in  all  her  beauty 
Give  unto  my  arms  my  sweetheart. 
Ere  I  join  the  ranks  of  shades  that 
Dwell  in  Pluto's  gloomy  kingdom 
I  would  make  dark  care  evanish. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  6i 

ODE  V 

On  the  Rose 

The  rose,  the  flower  of  Cupid, 

Let  us  mix  with  our  wine, 
And  on  our  brows  have  grouped 

Rose-chaplets,  leaves  of  vine. 

Our  temples  bound  with  flowers, 
We'll  drink  with  laughter  light, 

And  urge  the  flying  hours, 
With  faces  glowing  bright. 

The  rose  of  flowers  the  best  is. 

Of  spring  the  favourite ; 
And  more  than  all  the  rest  is 

The  deities'  delight. 

The  god  of  shining  winglets 

His  beauty  to  enhance 
With  roses  decks  his  ringlets 

When  Graces  with  him  dance. 


62  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Crown  me;  of  wine  the  pleasures 

Upon  my  lyre  I'll  sound, 
And  with  fair  maidens  measures 

Dance,  merry  and  rose-crowned.^ 

» This  spirited  poem  is  an  eulogy  on  the  rose,  and  again  in 
the  fifty-third  ode  we  shall  find  our  author  rich  in  the  praises 
of  that  flower. — Roche. 

The  ancients  used  wreaths  of  flowers  and  perfumes  at 
their  entertainments,  not  only  for  pleasure,  but  because  they 
imagined  that  odours  prevented  the  wine  from  intoxicating 
them. — Fawkes. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  63 

ODE  VI 

On  a  Revel 

Rosy  wine  we're  freely  quaffing, 

With  rose-garlands  temple-crowned; 
Merrily  ring  our  voices  laughing 

As  we  pass  the  bowl  around. 
A  trim-ankled  maid  is  shaking 

(With  eyes  lit  with  coy  desire) 
A  wreathed  thyrsus,  pirouettes  making 

To  the  music  of  a  lyre. 
Lo,  a  youth  with  downy  tresses 

Dulcet  praise  of  pleasure  sings, 
And  with  skilful  touch  caresses 

The  lute's  trembling,  murmuring  strings. 
Eros  golden-haired  is  present; 

Lovely  Venus,  beauty's  queen, 
Bacchus,  loved  of  king  and  peasant, 

Grace  the  revel's  pleasant  scene. 
Singing  many  a  jovial  strain, 
We  old  men  seem  young  again, 


64  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  VII 

The  Power  of  Love 

Armed  with  a  hyacinthine  wand 
Love  touched  me  with  his  little  hand — 
A  most  imperious  command. 

He  gave  me  a  swift  race  to  run 
With  him — ^by  torrents  on  and  on, 
By  moor  and  meadow,  wood  and  lawn 

Our  flight  we  urged;   to  him  I  clung — 

When  me  a  water-serpent  stung,^ 

Whereat  my  heart  paused,  failed  my  tongue. 

He  with  his  wings  soft  as  a  dove 

Fanned  me,  and  cried,  "  Does  this  not  prove 

How  vain  it  is  to  strive  with  Love  ?  " 

1  His  being  stung  by  a  serpent,  as  Mme.  Dacier  observes, 
was  to  punish  his  insensibility,  and  to  show  that  Love,  if  he 
would  submit  to  his  dominion,  would  take  him  under  his 
protection. — Fawkes. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  65 

ODE  VIII 
The  Dream 

In  the  dark  watches  of  the  night 

Reclined  upon  a  purple  bed, 
Delicious  dreams  of  import  bright 

The  god  of  wine  upon  me  shed. 

Methought  that  I  with  flying  feet 

A  band  of  beauteous  nymphs  pursued, 

And  hurrying  on  with  rapture  sweet 
I  gained  upon  the  lovely  crowd, 

While  youths  as  fair  as  Bacchus  is 
(The  youthful  god  forever  young) 

Seeing  but  sharing  not  my  bliss 
Jeered  at  me  as  I  rushed  along. 

A  kiss  I  ask,  but  as  I  seem 

Upon  the  verge  of  keen  delight 

Flies  far  from  me  the  pleasant  dream 
And  I  awake — a  hapless  wight. 


66  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Then  lonely,  wretched,  sad  I  strive 
(My  hopeful  pleasure  turned  to  pain) 

The  dear  delusion  to  revive 

By  courting  sleep's  soft  charms  again. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  67 

ODE  IX 

On  a  Dove^ 

Tell  me,  O  pretty  dove,  whither  art  thou 
flying  ? 
Prithee  whither  comest,  whither  dost  thou 
go? 
Perfumes  in  the  air  are  all  around  thee  dying 
As  on  tender  wings  thou  flutterest  to  and 
fro. 
Tell  me,  bird,  thine  errand,  for  I  fain  would 
know  it, 
Ere  thou  swiftly  speed'st  beyond  my  rap- 
tured sight. 
"  I  the  envoy  am  of  Anacreon  the  poet 

Sent    unto    Bathyllus,    men's    and    maids' 
delight. 

^  Interest  in  this  ingenious  apologue  is  augmented  by  the 
strong  characterisation  imparted  to  the  feathered  messenger. 
Concerning  this  ode  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  who  made  a 
metrical  version  of  it,  remarks:  "  As  I  was  never  struck  with 
anything  in  the  Greek  language  till  I  read  Anacreon's  Dove, 
so  have  I  never  read  anything  in  the  language  since,  that 
pleased  me  more." 


68  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Venus  to  the  Teian  sold  me,  from  him  taking 
A  little  hymn  in  barter  that  sweetly  breathed 
her  praise; 
So  the  Cyprian  court  and  beauty's  queen  for- 
saking, 
I  carry  his  love-letters  and  serve  him  many 
ways. 
He  says,  with  rosy  wine  made  generous  and 
fervent, 
That  soon  he  will  discharge  me  and  give  me 
liberty; 
But  though  he  should  dismiss  me  I  will  remain 
his  servant, 
For  why  should  I  go  wandering  o'er  field  and 
mountain  free, 
Scant  morsels  and  stray  bits  of  rustic  coarse 
food  seeking 
When  now  white  bread  in  plenty  from  his 
loved  hand  I  peck  ? 
He  freely  gives  me  wine,^  most  kindly  to  me 
speaking, 

*  Mrs.  Browning,  amongst  whose  works  is  also  to  be  found 
a  poetical  version  of  Ode  XXXIII.,  in  a  poem  addressed  to  a 


THE  ANACREONTEA  69 

Which  having  drunk  I  frolic  and  nestle  in 

his  neck. 
Whenever  I  would  slumber  I  sleep  upon  his 

lyre 
While  he  upon  its  strings  a  soothing  song 

will  play; 
Thou  know'st  all !     Begone !     For  I  of  talking 

tire : 
You've  made  me  chatter  more  than  even  a 

garrulous  jay." 

friend  who  had  made  her  a  present  of  some  Cyprian  wine, 
refers  to  this  passage  in  the  following  stanza: — 

Do  not  mock  me;  with  my  mortal 
Suits  no  wreath  again,  indeed; 

I  am  sad-voiced  as  the  turtle 
Which  Anacreon  used  to  feed. 

Yet  as  that  same  bird  demurely- 
Wet  her  beak  in  cup  of  his; 

So  without  a  garland,  surely, 
I  may  touch  the  brim  of  this. 


70  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE^X 
On  A  Waxen  Eros 

A  CERTAIN  youth  for  sale  had  brought 
A  waxen  Eros;  standing  by 
I  asked  the  owner  eagerly 

For  how  much  could  the  toy  be  bought. 

"  Take  him  at  your  own  price,"  said  he 
In  Doric :  "  Sir,  the  truth  to  tell, 
I  make  no  images  to  sell, 

But  from  Love's  thraldom  I'd  be  free. 

The  naughty  fellow  gives  me  rest 
Nor  day  nor  night,  so  I  am  fain 
To  part  with  him,  that  not  again 

He  may  disturb  with  pranks  my  breast." 

"  Here  for  a  drachm  give  him  to  me." 
I'll  throw  thee,  Eros,  in  the  fire 
If  thou  with  amorous  desire 

Enfiam'st  me  not  immediately. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  71 


ODE  XI 

On  Himself 

I  OFTEN  by  the  girls  am  told: 
"  Anacreon,  thou'rt  growing  old, 

Look  in  thy  glass  and  see 
How  scanty  is  thy  falling  hair, 
How  wrinkled  is  thy  forehead  bare; 

Age  sets  his  hand  on  thee." 

If  that  old  age  in  foul  despite 
Makes  thin  my  hair,  and  winter-white 

I  care  not — but  I  know 
It  best  behooves  a  hale  old  fellow 
Like  me  with  Bacchus  to  be  mellow, 

Ere  to  dark  death  I  go. 


72  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XII 

On  a  Swallow 

What  revenge,  say,  shall  I  take 
For  the  unseemly  noise  you  make. 

Swallow,  chattering  at  the  dawn's  first  ray  ? 
Seizing,  shall  I  clip  your  light 
Wings  so  swift  in  circling  flight, 

Or,  like  Tereus,  cut  your  tongue  away  ?  ^ 
By  your  tuneless  ceaseless  cheep 
You  have  banished  pleasant  sleep, 

And  the  dreams  of  love  I  fain  would  stay. 

*From  this  passage  of  Anacreon  it  should  seem  that 
Philomela  was  changed  into  a  swallow  and  not  Progne,  as 
Ovid  and  others  have  asserted, — Fawkes. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  73 

ODE  XIII 

On  Atys 

Atys,  as  old  poets  tell, 

Madly  howled  Cybele's  name. 
Wandering  by  mount  and  dell. 

Shouted  they  with  loud  acclaim 

Who  had  drunk  of  Clarus'  ^  spring. 
Thrilled  with  mad  prophetic  grame. 

Joyous  carols  will  I  sing, 

Worshipping  at  Bacchus'  shrine, 
And  care  to  the  winds  will  fling. 

Roses  on  my  brows  I'll  twine, 
And  with  perfumes  saturate 
Prove  the  joys  of  love  and  wine. 

^  Clarus  was  a  small  town  situated  on  the  Ionian  coast 
near  Colophon,  celebrated  for  its  temple  with  an  oracle  of 
Apollo,  which  was  built  by  Manto,  daughter  of  Tiresias,  after 
her  flight  from  Thebes.     Here  was  born  Antimachus. 


74  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XIV 

The  Combat^ 

Yes,  yes,  I  yield,  O  god  of  love ! 

I  own  thy  proud  imperious  rule. 
In  vain  all  combats  'gainst  thee  prove, 

Who  strives  with  thee  is  but  a  fool. 
Eros  with  many  a  subtle  art 
Strove  long  to  win  my  wayward  heart ; 
Inflamed  with  mad  rebellious  pride 
His  sovereign  power  I  denied. 

At  once  he  seized  his  little  bow 
And  golden  quiver  arrow-filled, 

Saying,  "  Let  us  to  battle  go!  " 
I  scorned  without  a  blow  to  yield. 

*  The  subject  of  this  ode  is  to  show  the  irresistible  nature 
of  Love.  In  this  piece  Anacreon  discovers  a  wonderful 
delicacy  of  invention;  nothing  can  be  imagined  more  enter- 
taining than  this  combat,  the  preparation  for  it,  the  issue 
of  it,  and  that  natural  and  admirable  reflection  with  which 
it  concludes. — Fawkes. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  75 

So  helm  and  corslet,  spear  and  shield 
I  took,  and  sought  the  martial  field, 
Like  famed  Achilles  did  I  move 
In  panoply  and  fought  with  Love. 

With  many  a  shaft  he  pierced  me  through 

Till  all  his  darts  at  last  were  gone. 
I  fled;  straightway  he  angry  grew, 
And  quickly  threw  himself  upon 
Me,  even  as  a  swift-winged  dart 
He  shot  himself  into  my  heart; 
Unnerved,  my  courage  ebbed  away, 
And  conquered  at  his  feet  I  lay. 

What  use  is  armour,  shield  or  spear 
'Gainst  Love;   defence  to  folly  turns; 

No  victory  can  I  win,  'tis  clear. 
While  war  within  me  fiercely  burns. 


76  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XV 

On  Living  Unenviously^ 

I  ENVY  not  the  wealth  and  pride 

Of  Gyges  ^  and  his  crime-bought  bride. 

I  frown  on  treasured  heaps  of  gold, 
And  princes'  pomp  I  lightly  hold. 

^  The  argument  of  this  ode  is :  Vacui  curis  dum  vivimus  et 
valemus,  Iceti  fruamur  bonis.  Barnes  gives  this  ode  a  different 
title  which  he  takes  from  the  Vatican  MS.,  viz. :  Bi'j  to  &(f>d6pu}s 
^v,  Quod  lihere  sit  vivendum  ;  or,  On  Living  Freely.  He 
conjectures  that  Anacreon  wrote  it  on  the  occasion  of  his  re- 
turning the  money  to  Polycrates  according  to  the  anecdote  in 
Stobaeus. — Roche. 

The  anecdote  in  Stobaeus  is  as  follows:  Anacreon  having 
received  a  present  of  five  talents  of  gold  from  Polycrates, 
tyrant  of  Samos,  was  so  embarrassed  with  cares  and  solicitudes 
about  his  treasure,  that  he  could  not  sleep  for  two  nights 
successively;  whereupon  he  sent  back  the  present  with  this 
apology  to  his  patron:  "  That  however  valuable  the  sum 
might  be,  it  was  not  a  sufficient  price  for  the  trouble  and 
anxiety  of  keeping  it." — Fawkes. 

*  Gyges  was  a  minister  of  Candaules,  last  Heraclid  King  of 
Lydia,  whose  wife  Nyssa,  a  Bactrian,  was  distinguished  for 
her  personal  attractions,  and  was  much  admired  by  her 
husband  as  a  nonpareil  of  beauty.     Having  commended  her 


THE  ANACREONTEA  77 

To  scent  my  beard  with  perfumed  showers, 
To  wreathe  my  temples  with  fair  flowers — 

Such  are  my  care  and  my  delight; 
I  merrily  revel  day  and  night. 

My  lyre  of  present  pleasure  sings ; 
We  know  not  what  to-morrow  brings. 

Then  while  fair  halcyon  hours  are  thine 
Dice,  and  quaff  mirth-enkindling  wine, 

Ere  death  with  icy  tones  shall  say; 
"  Drink  thou  no  longer — come  away!  " 

charms  very  highly  to  Gyges,  he  undertook  to  prove  that  his 
praises  of  her  were  deserved  by  discovering  her  to  him  in 
puris  naturalihus  when  she  was  at  the  bath.  The  queen, 
who  was  aware  of  this  affront  offered  to  her  modesty,  told 
Gyges  emphatically  that  he  must  either  kill  the  king  or  be 
slain  himself.  He  therefore  stabbed  Candaules,  married  the 
queen,  and  made  himself  master  of  the  kingdom,  over  which 
he  reigned  for  thirty-eight  years,  founding  the  dynasty  of 
the  Mermnadae.  On  this  subject  a  beautiful  tale  entitled  Le 
Rot  Candaule  has  been  written  by  Theophile  Gautier.  Gyges 
was  feigned  to  be  the  owner  of  a  famous  brazen  ring,  which, 
like  Pluto's  helmet,  possessed  the  property  of  rendering  the 
wearer  invisible. 


78  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XVI 

The  Captive 

Some  tell  of  Thebes  *  and  some  relate 
Of  Phrygian  wars  the  conflicts  dire; 
But  I,  who  feel  no  martial  fire, 

A  captive,  glory  in  my  fate. 

Of  fleets  victorious  am  I 

No  slave;  nor  yet  an  army's  prize: 
My  conquerors  they  are  the  sly 

Foes  darting  fires  from  my  love's  eyes. 

1  The  poet  alludes  to  the  expedition  of  the  Seven  against 
Thebes  mentioned  in  The  Iliad,  Book  IV. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  79 


ODE  XVII 

On  a  Silver  Drinking  Cup 

Skilled  Hephaestus,  matchless  wright, 
Carve  me  from  this  silver  bright 
Neither  arms  nor  panoply; 
Battles,  wars,  are  naught  to  me. 
Fashion  me  a  hollow  bowl, 
Deep  so  that  my  thirsty  soul 
In  its  depths  my  cares  may  sink 
When  the  grateful  juice  I  drink. 
Grave  me  no  fantastic  forms. 
Nor  Orion,  star  of  storms; 
Neither  let  Bootes  rise 
Glittering  in  the  mimic  skies; 
Nor  the  Wain  nor  Pleiades ; 
What  have  I  to  do  with  these! 
Master,  on  the  goblet  shape 
Purple  clusters  of  the  grape; 


8o  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Let  the  wine-press,  too,  be  trod 
By  love's  naked  gold-tressed  god, 
And  let  fair  Lyaeus  be 
Present  at  the  revelry.^ 

1  This  admired  ode  is  quoted  by  Aulus  Gellius  in  his  Nodes 
AtticcB.  where  he  says  that  he  heard  it  sung  and  played  by 
minstrels  of  both  sexes  at  an  entertainment  at  which  he  was 
present. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  8i 


ODE  XVIII 

On  the  Same 

Artist  of  the  skilful  hand, 

Grave  me  a  bowl,  and  on  it  show 
Floral  pomp  of  gracious  spring; 
Listen  now  to  my  command: 
On  it  let  bright  roses  grow, 
Carve  me  birds  upon  the  wing. 
Draw  the  revel's  mirthful  whirl, 
All  the  mad  wine-kindled  swirl. 

Tale  of  horror,  cruel  rite. 
Battle-scene  or  sacrifice, 
Do  not  there  depict  for  me. 
Venus,  queen  of  soft  delight, 
Bacchus  reeling  tipsy-wise. 
On  the  cup  let  pictured  be. 
And  beneath  a  broad-leaved  vine 
Let  Love  and  the  Graces  twine. 


82  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Love  shall  be  without  his  arms, 
Laughing  in  his  naked  charms : 
And  if  not  there  Phoebus  play 
Red-lipped  comely  youths  portray  J 


ODE  XIX 

Reasons  for  Drinking 

The  earth  drinks  the  rain, 
And  the  trees  the  earth  drain : 
The  sea  drinks  the  breeze, 
And  the  sun  drinks  the  seas. 

»  Because  the  beautiful  youth  Hyacinthus  was  accidentally 
killed  by  Apollo  as  they  were  playing  together  at  quoits. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  83 

The  moon  drinks  the  sun — ^ 

Then  why  should  we  shun 

Wine,  tell  me  each  one! 

If  I  revel  at  ease, 

And  drink  when  I  please 

Who  can  blame  me  ?     None !  ^ 

» Cf.  Shakespeare,  Timon  of  Athens,  Act  IV.  Sc.  3: — 

The  sun's  a  thief,  and  with  his  great  attraction 
Robs  the  vast  sea.     The  moon's  an  arrant  thief, 
And  her  pale  fire  she  snatches  from  the  sun. 
The  sea's  a  thief,  whose  liquid  surge  resolves 
The  moon  into  salt  tears.     The  earth's  a  thief 
That  feeds  and  breeds  by  a  composture  stolen 
From  general  excrement :  each  thing's  a  thief. 

*  Ronsard  translates  this  ode  thus : — 

La  terre  les  eaux  va  boivent, 
L'arbre  la  boit,  par  sa  racine: 
La  mer  salee  boit  le  vent, 
Et  le  soleil  boit  la  marine. 
Le  soleil  est  beu  de  la  lune, 
Tout  boit  soit  en  haut  ou  en  bas; 
Suivant  ceste  regie  commune 
Pourquoi  done  ne  boirons-nous  pas? 


84  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XX 

To  His  Mistress 

Alone  on  arid  Phrygian  sands 

Pale  Niobe  a  statue  stands, 

And  Progne,  all  her  sorrows  done, 

A  flitting  swallow  twitters  on. 

But  if  I  underwent,  I  wis, 

Some  pleasing  metamorphosis. 

Ah  sweet!   thy  mirror  I  would  be 

That  thou  might'st  often  gaze  at  me. 

And  I  would  be  thy  silken  vest. 

That  thou  might'st  fold  me  to  thy  breast 

Would  that  I  were  a  cooling  wave 

Thy  soft  and  rosy  limbs  to  lave. 

Thy  perfume  I  would  be,  my  fair. 

Mixed  in  the  torrents  of  thy  hair; 

I  fain  would  be  thy  girdle  placed 

Chastely  around  thy  shapely  waist; 


THE  ANACREONTEA  85 

A  necklace  I  would  be  enwound 
Closely  thy  arching  neck  around; 
Or  e'en  thy  slipper  I  would  be 
By  thy  trim  foot  pressed  daintily.^ 

*  Cf .  Shakespeare,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  II.  Sc.  2 : — 

O  that  I  were  that  glove  upon  that  hand 
That  I  might  touch  that  cheek, 
and  Sonnet  CXXVIII.  in  which  the  poet  wishes  to  be  the 
jacks  {i.e.  keys)  of  the  instrument  his  lady  plays,  that  like 
them  he  may  kiss  her  hand.     For  the  better  understanding 
of  this  pretty  conceit  it  is  necessary  to  cite  the  entire  sonnet  :-— 
How  oft,  when  thou  my  music,  music  playst. 
Upon  that  blessed  wood  whose  motion  sounds 
With  thy  sweet  fingers,  when  thou  gently  swayst 
The  wiry  concord  that  mine  ear  confounds. 
Do  I  envy  those  jacks  that  nimble  leap 
To  kiss  the  tender  inward  of  thy  hand, 
Whilst  my  poor  lips  that  should  that  harvest  reap, 
At  the  wood's  boldness,  by  thee  blushing  stand ! 
To  be  so  tickled,  they  would  change  their  state 
And  situation  with  those  dancing  chips. 
O'er  whom  thy  fingers  walk  with  gentle  gait. 
Making  dead  wood  more  blest  than  living  lips. 
Since  saucy  jacks  so  happy  are  in  this, 
Give  them  thy  fingers,  me  thy  lips  to  kiss. 

Thus,   too,   the  first  song  in   The  Miller's  Daughter  by 
Tennyson: — 

It  is  the  miller's  daughter. 

And  she  is  grown  so  dear,  so  dear. 
That  I  would  be  the  jewel 

That  trembles  at  her  ear: 
For  hid  in  ringlets  day  and  night 
I'd  touch  her  neck  so  warm  and  white. 


86  THE  ANACREONTEA 

And  I  would  be  the  girdle 

About  her  dainty,  dainty  waist, 

And  her  heart  would  beat  against  me. 
In  sorrow  and  in  rest: 

And  I  should  know  if  it  beat  right, 

I'd  clasp  it  round  so  close  and  tight. 

And  I  would  be  the  necklace 

All  day  long  to  fall  and  rise 
Upon  her  balmy  bosom, 

With  her  laughter  or  her  sighs: 
And  I  would  lie  so  light,  so  light, 
I  scarce  should  be  unclasped  at  night. 

The  following  epigram  from  the  Anthology,  by  Dionjrsius 
the  sophist,  contains  also  ideas  similar  to  those  so  gallantly 
expressed  in  this  ode: — 

I  wish  myself  a  gentle  breeze  to  blow, 

O'er  your  fair  bosom  unconfined  I'd  flow. 

And  wanton  on  those  little  hills  of  snow. 

I  wish  myself  a  rose  in  purple  dressed, 

That  you  might  place  me  on  your  snowy  breast. 

I  wish  myself  a  lily,  lovely  fair, 

That  I  might  kiss  your  skin,  and  gather  whiteness  there. 

Similar  sentiments  are  expressed  in  the  following  stanza,  of 
which  the  first  four  lines  are  quoted  by  Burns  from  an  old 
ballad:— 

"  O,  that  my  love  were  yon  red  rose 
That  grows  upon  the  castle  wa'. 
And  I  myself  a  drap  o'  dew. 

Into  her  bonny  breast  to  fa' !  " 
O,  then  beyond  expression  blest, 

I'd  feast  on  beauty  a'  the  night, 
Sunk  in  her  silk-saft  faulds  to  rest. 
Till  fleyed  awa'  by  Phoebus'  light. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  87 


ODE  XXI 

Summer 

Give  me,  maids,  deep  draughts  of  wine  ^ 
For  exhausted  with  the  heat 
I  am  gasping;  of  flowers  sweet 

Round  my  temples  fresh  wreaths  twine. 

For  the  garlands  I  wear  now 
Scorched  are  by  my  burning  brow. 
But  Love's  fires,  0  heart,  in  you 
How,  ye  gods,  can  I  subdue  ? 

*  In  the  Greek  irielv  dfiva-Ti.  Amystis  was  a  Thracian 
fashion  of  drinking,  which  consisted  in  swallowing  a  certain 
amount  of  liquor  without  taking  breath  or  dosing  the 
mouth. — Madame  Dacier. 


88  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XXII 

The  Retreat 

Bathyllus,  let  us  seek  yon  bower, 
A  balmy  breeze  the  branches  stirs; 

We  there  may  spend  a  tranquil  hour, 
And  list  to  feathered  choristers. 

A  crystal  stream  flows  gently  by, 
Rolling  persuasion  through  the  grove;  ^ 

And  in  a  soft  and  languorous  sigh 
Whispers  of  dreamful  rest  and  love. 

All  things  combine  to  melt  the  heart. 
And  loose  the  shackles  of  dark  care; 

To  sorrow  bid  and  pain  depart — 
Who  would  not  willingly  rest  there  ? 

1  In  the  original  UtjyTj  piovcra  Teidovs  —  a  line  which  has 
been  much  praised  by  critics  and  commentators  for  its 
inimitable  grace  and  delicacy. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  89 

ODE  XXIII 

On  the  Love  of  Lucre 

If  wealth  would  lengthen  life's  short  span 
I'd  love  it  well  as  any  man 

And  zealously  guard  my  gold; 
That  if  the  Reaper,  Death,  drew  nigh 
He  might  take  some,  and  bribed  thereby 

His  dreadful  darts  withhold. 
But  since  we  cannot  purchase  life 
Or  youth  or  happiness,  all  strife 

For  worldly  gain  is  vain. 
What  boots  it  then  to  sigh  or  mourn  I 
The  miser's  from  his  treasure  torn 

By  Death's  remorseless  bane. 
For  if  by  fate  decreed  is  death 
Gold  cannot  stay  man's  fleeting  breath. — 

Be  it  mine  with  flower-crowned  head 
To  drink  with  boon  friends ;  in  my  arms 
To  clasp  my  fair  in  all  her  charms, 

Ere  I  lie  cold  and  dead. 


90  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XXIV 

The  Gay  Reveller 

Since  I  was  born  mortal  to  tread  pathways  of 

years  that  fast 
Fly  like  youth's  dreams  full  well  I  know  the 

time  that  is  overpast. 
But  as  to  future  fate,  sorrow  or  joy,  none  can 

tell  what  shall  be : 
Then  O  care,  grievous  and  black,  what  hast 

to  do  with  me ! 
Ere  shall  dark  death  fall  on  mine  eyes,  sealing 

their  lids  with  night, 
I  with  dance,  revel,  and  mirth  will  grasp  the 

present's  delight. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  91 


ODE  XXV 

Wine  and  Care 

When  I  drink  wine  care  sleeps. 
What  with  sorrow  and  pain 
Have  my  numbers  to  do  ? 
Swiftly  time's  current  sweeps : 
Though  to  live  I  am  fain 
As  others  must  I  die  too. 
While  through  our  veins  life  leaps 

The  bowl  to  the  lees  let  us  drain, 
For  while  we  drink  care  sleeps. 


92  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XXVI 

The  Joys  of  Wine 

When  I  drink  wine  my  cares  are  lulled  to  rest,* 
No  longer  sorrow  reigneth  in  my  breast. 

Of  the  vast  treasures  of  the  Lydian  King  ^ 
Deeming  myself  possessed,  I  wish  to  sing. 

The  passing  glories  of  my  wine-bred  dream 
Make  earthly  things  to  me  as  tiifles  seem. 

With  ivy  crowned  I  languidly  recline 
Singing  the  praises  of  the  god  of  wine. 

Gird  on  thine  armour,  thou  who  tak'st  delight 
In  martial  splendour,  and  the  fiery  fight. 

»Cf.  Hor.  Odes,  I.  i8:— 

.  .  .  neque 
Mordaces  aliter  diffugiunt  solicitudines. 

Carking  cares  and  griefs  malign 
Are  dispelled  by  rosy  wine. 

*  Crcesus. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  93 

Boy,  brim  the  bowl!   the  vine's  blood  I  would 

shed — 
'Tis  better  to  lie  temulent  than  dead.^ 

» Walter  Mapes,  an  old  Anglo-Latin  poet,  yields  the  palm 
to  none  in  fidelity  to  Bacchus,  as  the  following  couplet  of  his 
evinces : — 

Mihi  est  propositum  in  taberna  mori, 
Vinum  sit  appositum  morientis  ori. 

When  comes  the  time  I  needs  must  go 

To  Orcus  and  the  shades  below. 
In  festal  hall  mid  mirth  and  revelry, 
And  where  the  wine-cup  sparkles,  let  me  die. 


9+  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE    XXVII 

On  Bacchus 

When  Jove's  son  Bacchus,  foe  of  pain 
And  sorrow,  enters  in  my  brain — 
When  I  with  wine  am  made  elate 
I  careless  sport  of  future  fate 

Mid  laughter,  song  and  revelry. 
The  heart-uplifting  joys  of  wine 
Thrill  me  with  transports  quite  divine; 
Queen  Venus  and  the  sounding  lyre 
Enkindling  verve  and  blithe  desire 

Fire  me  to  trip  it  merrily. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  95 

ODE  XXVIII 

Portrait  of  His  Mistress 

0  master  of  the  Rhodian  art, 

Come  paint  for  me  with  skilful  care 
The  portrait  of  my  absent  fair, 

Who  reigns  the  empress  of  my  heart. 
To  thee  each  charm  I  will  declare : 
First  paint  me  then  her  flowing  hair 

Both  soft  and  black;  and  if  the  wax 

Be  able  let  it  breathe  perfume; 

With  gleaming  tints  its  waves  illume. 
See  no  detail  the  picture  lacks 

That  I  may  tell  thee;  paint  below 

Her  tresses  her  smooth-as-ivory  brow. 

Nor  wholly  separate  or  join 

Her  silken  eyebrows  dark  as  night, 
But  prithee  make  them  glossy-bright 

And  arched  like  Love's  bow;  and  her  eyne — 
Let  them  have  spirit,  brightness,  fire, 
And  be  lit  like  Venus'  with  desire. 


96  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Let  them  be,  too,  like  Pallas'  blue. 

But  wantoner  and  tenderer  far 

Than  those  of  that  grave  goddess  are; 
And  let  her  soul  their  depths  shine  through. 

To  paint  her  soft  cheeks  and  straight  nose 

Together  mingle  milk  and  rose. 

Paint  pouting  for  a  lover's  kiss 
Her  lips  with  coral  fire  aglow, 
Wherefrom  clear  silver  speech  doth  flow 

As  eloquent  as  Peitho's  is.^ 
Let  many  pleasing  graces  deck 
Her  delicate  chin,  and  ivory  neck. 

^The  ancients,  to  give  us  an  idea  of  a  mouth  perfectly 
agreeable,  generally  represented  it  by  the  lips  of  persuasion. — 
Fawkes. 

Peitho  {Ueidd)  in  Greek  mythology  is  the  personi- 
fication of  persuasion.  She  is  not  mentioned  in  Homer, 
and  first  appears  in  Hesiod  {Works  and  Days,  7^)  in  the 
legend  of  Pandora.  Like  the  Erotes  and  Charites  she  usually 
accompanies  Aphrodite.  Her  prominence  in  later  literature 
was  perchance  due  to  Sappho,  Ibycus,  Anacreon,  and  other 
lyric  poets.  She  is  usually  the  familiar  of  Aphrodite,  but  is 
also  connected  with  Hermes  as  the  god  of  eloquence.  She 
seems  to  have  had  a  separate  worship  at  Sicyon  and  Athens. 
By  the  Romans  she  was  called  Suada  and  Suadela, 


THE  ANACREONTEA  97 

As  for  the  rest,  her  body  drape 
In  a  translucent  violet  dress 
Which  may  to  tranced  eyes  express 

The  glowing  beauties  of  her  shape. 
Enough,  enough,  'tis  what  I  seek. 
It  is  my  love — she  soon  will  speak. 


98  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XXIX 

Portrait  of  Bathyllus 

Come,  paint  me  my  Bathyllus  fair 

As  I  shall  tell  to  thee; 
First  make  his  wavy  wealth  of  hair, 

And  let  it  blackish  be. 

But  shot  with  sunny  gleams,  nor  show 
It  trimmed  or  braided;   and 

At  random  let  it  freely  flow, 
Curled  but  by  nature's  hand. 

Beneath  his  eyebrows  glossy-dark 

Let  his  fresh  forehead  rise 
White  and  unwrinkled;  painter,  mark 

How  I  would  have  his  eyes. 

Let  them  be  dark  and  bright  and  keen, 
And  let  them  breathe  desire; 

From  Venus  take  their  wanton  sheen, 
From  Mars  their  earnest  fire. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  99 

Let  a  blush  o'erspread  his  lovely  face 

Which  modesty  imprints; 
Let  it  have  every  youthful  grace, 

And  be  downy  as  the  quince. 

His  rosy  lips,  O  how  could  I 

Portray? — ^mere  words  would  fail; 
But  let  them  soft  persuasion  sigh. 

And  flower-like  sweets  exhale. 

1 
.  .  ... 

Well  were  it  if  the  picture  had 

A  speaking  silence;  now 
Of  Adon  the  neck  and  shoulders  add, 

And  Hermes'  hands  bestow. 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  his  feet; 

What  price  thou  wilt  demand. 
Take  Apollo's  statue,  and  from  it 

With  what  skill  thou  canst  command 

Depict  the  charms  whereof  I  shall 
Not  speak,  and  fame  will  follow; 

*  Here  follows  in  the  original  a  parum-pudici  passage  which 
has  been  left  untranslated. 


loo  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Shouldst  go  to  Samos  none  could  tell 
Bathyllus  from  Apollo.^ 

» There  was  a  famous  temple  of  Apollo  at  Samos.  Poly- 
crates  had  a  statue  erected  there  to  the  beautiful  youth, 
Bathyllus,  which  represented  him  in  the  guise  of  Apollo  play- 
ing on  the  lyre.  Ode  XXII.  is  addressed  to  him,  and  he  is 
mentioned  in  Odes  IX.  and  XVII.  Horace,  Epode  XIV., 
thus  refers  to  the  friendship  of  Anacreon  and  Bathyllus : — 

Non  aliter  Samio  dicunt  arsine  Bathyllo 

Anacreonta  Teium, 
Qui  persaepe  cava  testudine  fievit  amorem, 

Non  elaboratum  ad  pedem, 

'Tis  said  the  tuneful  Teian  bard  admired 
Bathyllus,  and  with  genial  ardour  fired 
Sang  to  his  lyre,  with  tender  truth. 
Sweet  praises  of  the  Samian  youth. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  loi 

ODE  XXX 

The  Voluntary  Captive 

Once  Love  by  the  fair  Muses  being  caught 
Flower-bound  to  Beauty  was  brought. 

Venus  without  her  darling  ill  at  ease 
Now  seeks  him  to  release 

With  ransoms ;  but  endeavours  all  are  vain, 
For  Eros  hugs  his  chain. 

From  Beauty  parted  he'll  no  longer  dwell, 
He  loves  his  serfdom  well.* 

^  This  ode  is  very  fine  and  the  fiction  extremely  ingenious. 
I  believe  that  Anacreon  would  inculcate  that  beauty  alone 
cannot  long  secure  a  conquest,  but  that  where  wit  and  beauty 
meet  it  is  impossible  for  a  lover  to  disengage  himself. — 
Madame  Dacier. 

Cf.  Moschus,  Love  the  Runaway,  Idyllium  I. 


102  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XXXI 1 

Pleasing  Frenzy 

Permit  me,  by  the  gods,  I  pray,  to-night 

In  the  wine's  rosy  tide 
To  sink  my  sorrows,  frantic  with  delight — 

Not  like  the  matricide 

Alcmaeon,  or  Orestes  guilty  of 

A  like  crime,  would  I  be 
Mad,  but  in  harmless  dalliance  of  love 

Wine- thrilled  join  merrily. 

No  furies  me  pursue,  no  one  I've  slain. 

Yet  I'll  be  mad  also. 
I  shake  no  quiver  (war's  arts  I  disdain) 

Or  Iphitean  bow. 

1  This  ode  and  Ode  XIII.  (On  Atys)  are  informed  with  the 
true  spirit  of  the  Dionysia,  and  breathe  the  abandon  and  wild 
transports  of  that  mystic  cult. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  103 

Once  Ajax  frantic  wandered  brandishing 

The  seven-fold  shield  and  sword 
Of  Hector — self-slain   his   strong   soul   took 
wing — 

So  fell  the  envious  lord. 

But  bowl  in  hand,  my  tresses  chaplet-crowned, 

With  neither  sword  nor  bow 
I'll  tread  the  fervent  dances'  mazy  round, 

Mad,  and  with  wine  aglow. 


104  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XXXII 

On  the  Number  of  His  Amours 

If  you  can  count  the  leaves  of  the  trees, 

Or  the  foaming  waves  of  the  untamed  seas, 

Then  will  I  entrust  to  you  alone 

To  reckon  the  amours  I  have  known. 

Take  at  Athens  twenty  mistresses, 

And  then  you  may  add  fifteen  to  these. 

Put  me  a  countless  number  down 

At  Corinth,^  that  famed  Achaean  town. 

Where  the  women  are  so  dangerously  fair 

From  falling  in  love  one  can't  escape  there. 

My  Lesbian  I  will  now  indite. 

Next  Ionian  and  Carian;  and  you  may  write 

Many  at  Rhodes,  all  my  heart's  delight. 

The  sum  when  computed  carefully 

Will  about  two  thousand  prove  to  be. 

*  Corinth,  the  metropolis  of  Achaea,  was  famous  for  its 
lorettes,  whose  extravagant  demands  upon  the  purses  of 
their  admirers  gave  rise  to  the  proverb  Non  cuivis  homini 
contigit  adire  Corinthum  ("  Every  man  cannot  go  to  Corinth.") 

— ^LONGUEPIBRRE. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  105 

What !   do  you  think  the  list  is  done  ? 
Why,  good  my  friend,  I  have  just  begun. 
I've  yet  to  mention  my  Syrian  fair. 
With  their  tender  ways  and  coquettish  air. 
My  loves  of  Canopus,  and  those  of  Crete 
Where  Lord  Love  holdeth  his  revels  sweet. 
I  have  not  told  you  of  those  at  Cadiz, 
A  town  far-famed  for  its  lovely  ladies. 
My  Bactrian  fair  you  must  yet  enroll, 
And  the  Indian  flames  that  fire  my  soul.^ 

*  Cf.  Cowley's  ballad  The  Chronicle,  which  is  one  of  the 
most  natural  and  graceful  poems  of  the  once  admired  English 
Pindar,  and  which  was  probably  suggested  by  this  ode. 
Cowley  translated  eleven  of  the  odes,  and  wrote  an  elegy  on 
the  Teian  poet,  all  of  which  are  free  from  the  tortuous  meta- 
physical conceits  with  which  many  of  his  writings  abound, 
and  have  received  high  and  condign  praise.  From  the  elegy 
just  mentioned,  which  is  spoken  throughout  by  the  god  of 
love,  Fawkes  quotes  the  following  lines  as  giving  a  just 
estimate  of  the  odes : — 

All  thy  verse  is  softer  far 

Than  the  downy  feathers  are 

Of  my  wings  or  of  my  arrows, 

Of  my  mother's  doves  or  sparrows; 

Graceful,  cleanly,  smooth  and  round, 

All  with  Venus'  girdle  bound. 


io6  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XXXIII 

On  a  Swallow 

Yes,  here,  my  pretty  swallow,  twittering  guest. 
You  every  summer  build  your  little  nest. 

And  wing  your  flight  ere  comes  the  snow 
To  Memphis,  or  you  seek  the  shores  of  Nile. 
But  Eros  in  my  heart  with  many  a  wile 

His  nest  weaves  and  he  will  not  go.^ 
One  love  is  fully  fledged  and  one  is  still 
Within  the  shell;   another  half-fledged  will 

Become  a  grown  love  shortly;   so 
Great  is  the  noise  they  make  no  peace  at  all 
I  have ;  the  larger  ones  support  the  small. 

In  turn  the  younger  nurslings  too 
Produce  an  infant  brood.     I  cannot  free 
Myself  from  so  many  light  loves'  slavery : 

Except  to  yield  what  can  I  do  ? 

*  Anacreon  is  not  singular  in  representing  Cupid  as  a  bird, 
and  with  propriety,  because  he  is  imped  with  wings,  and  his 
flight  is  surprisingly  rapid.  Bion  speaks  of  love  as  a  bird  in 
his  second  idyllium. — Fawkes. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  107 


ODE    XXXIV 

To  A  Damsel 

Fly  not,  sweet,  from  my  side. 

Scorning  the  snow  of  my  tresses; 

Neither  reject  my  caresses, 
0  fair  in  thy  freshness  and  pride. 
Because  thou'rt  a  beauty,  my  Phyllis. 

Frail  thine  each  soft  charm  that  glows  is ; 
Time  will  thy  bright  hair  make  hoary. 
In  chaplets  behold  how  the  lilies 

Blend  their  white  snow-shining  glory 

With  the  orient  flush  of  the  roses. 


io8  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XXXV 

On  Europa 

This  pictured  bull  doth  seem  to  me 
None  else  than  Jove  himself  to  be; 

'Cross  foaming  wastes  he  keeps  his  track, 

A  fair  Sidonian  on  his  back; 
The  billows  with  his  hoof  cleaves  he. 

No  other  bull  could  e'er  be  found 
To  leave  like  him  his  pasture  ground, 
And  brave  the  perils  of  the  sea. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  109 

ODE  XXXVI 

Life  Should  Be  Enjoyed  ^ 

Prate  not  of  the  savants'  rules, 
Or  the  squabbles  of  the  schools, 

Or  the  sophists'  subtle  wit, 
For  I  have  no  part  in  it. 

Teach  me  not  to  pose  and  think, 
Rather  teach  me  how  to  drink, 

And,  with  many  a  sprightly  sally. 
Teach  me  how  in  love  to  dally. 

*The  sentiments  of  the  subjoined  brief  Anacreontic  from 
Herrick's  Hesperides  are  somewhat  similar  to  those  of  the 
last  four  lines  of  this  ode : — 

Bom  I  wais  to  be  old. 

And  for  to  die  here; 
After  that  in  the  mould 

Long  for  to  lie  here. 
But  before  that  day  comes 

Still  I  be  bousing; 
For  I  know  in  the  tombs 

There's  no  carousing. 


no  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Mine  are  tresses  winter-white, 
I've  scant  time  to  snare  delight, 

But  the  few  years  left  to  me 
I'll  enjoy  right  merrily. 

Water  mix,  0  boy,  with  wine; 
Let  the  vine's  red  glories  shine; 

Reason  let  and  memory  sleep 
While  my  soul  in  wine  I  steep. 

Soon  in  joyless  sunless  gloom 
Must  I  lie  within  the  tomb. 

Fill  the  gleaming  goblet  higher. 
After  death  is  no  desire. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  in 


ODE  XXXVII 

On  Spring 

Behold,  the  rose-cheeked  gracile  spring 

Brings  in  again  her  laughing  hours 
And  shakes  delight  from  either  wing. 

The  Graces  dancing  in  a  ring 

In  naked  beauty  scatter  flowers, 
The  calm  blue  waves  are  slumbering. 

Behold,  the  duck  in  waters  clear 

Dives  airily :   the  wandering  crane 
Flaps  white  wings  by  the  grass-fringed  mere. 

Ploughed  field,  bare  fallow,  flowering  lea, 
Fell,  mountain,  plain  and  wold  and  dell 
Are  clad  in  joyous  greenery. 

The  tender  olive,  too,  we  see 

Shoot  forth :  the  vines  full  laden  swell, 
Foreshadowing  fair  fruits  to  be. 


112  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XXXVIII 
Young  Old  Age 

I'm  growing  old,  the  years  speed  by; 

And  soon  my  last  song  will  be  sung; 
But  still,  and  this  none  can  deny, 

I  drink  more  than  the  young. 

When  in  the  dance's  mirthful  maze 
I  trip  it  featly  with  the  best, 

For  sceptre  I  a  flagon  raise, 
Upon  no  staff  I  rest. 

Let  him  whose  soul  can  take  delight 
In  martial  pageantry  and  war 

Seek  glory  on  the  field  of  fight, 
To  drink  is  better  far. 

The  goblet  bring,  my  favourite  page, 
And  old  Silenus,  friends,  you'll  see 

(Despite  the  incubus  of  age) 
Outdone  by  merry  me. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  113 

ODE  XXXIX 

The  Transports  of  Wine 

When  I  drink  wine  my  veins  ever  with  rapture 

thrill, 
Glory  and  fire  of  song  my  breast  joy-lightened 

fill. 

When  I  drink  wine  care  flies  borne  on  the 
winds  that  sweep 

Over  the  desolate  wastes  of  the  roaring  rest- 
less deep. 

When  I  drink  wine  I  seem  whirled  in  a  flying 

dream, 
Tossed   on   a   perfumed   breeze,   lulled   by  a 

murmuring  stream. 

When  I  drink  wine  my  brows  I  wreathe  with 

chaplets  of  flowers. 
Praises  of  pleasure  I  sing,  and  calm  of  light 

laughing|hours. 


114  THE  ANACREONTEA 

When  I  drink  wine,  being  bathed  with  odorous 

spices,  I  hold 
My  fair  to  my  heaving  breast,  and  closely  her 

charms  enfold. 

When  I  drink  wine  from  a  bowl  fulfilled  to  the 

rosy  brim 
To  Bacchanals'  songs  I  list;    in  delight  my 

senses  swim. 

Let  the  blessings  of  life  be  mine  ere  it  is  too 

late; 
Soon  must  I  lie  death-chilled,  dreamless  of 

love  or  fate. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  115 


ODE  XL 
Eros  Stung  by  a  Bee 

Once  Eros  in  a  fragrant  bower 

Midst  roses  chanced  to  linger; 
And  as  he  plucked  his  favourite  flower 

A  wild  bee  stung  his  finger. 
He  screamed  with  pain,  and  stamped  his  feet 

With  rage,  and  quickly  flying 
To  Venus  said,  "  O  mother  sweet, 

I  perish,  I  am  dying! 
A  little  winged  serpent  me 

With  its  sharp  lance  has  wounded, 
'Twas  what  the  peasants  call  a  bee — 

I  really  shall  be  soon  dead." 
Queen  Venus  fondly  soothed  his  pain, 

And  bade  him  cease  his  crying; 
"  Thou  soon,  dear,  wilt  be  well  again," 

She  said,  with  smiles  him  eyeing. 


ii6  THE  ANACREONTEA 

And  added,  "  If  such  pain  the  bee 

Inflicts,  sly  little  duffer, 
Think  of  the  many  hearts  by  thee 

Stung,  and  how  much  they  suffer."  ^ 

*  The  nineteenth  idyllium  of  Theocritus  called  the  Honey- 
Stealer  is  written  in  imitation  of  this  ode,  but  in  a  different 
metre.     It  is  as  follows: — 

TAy  KkiiTTav  ttot'  "Epwra  KaKo,  Kivraffe  fi^Xiffffa, 
KtjpLov  iK  (rlfipXwv  ffvXe^fievop  •  &Kpa  di  x^'-P^^ 
ddKTvXa  ir&vd*  VTrivv^ev  •  65'  dXyee,  Kai  x^P*  i<pi(Tff'n, 
Kot  rdv  ydv  eirdra^e,  Kal  dXaro  '  t^  5'  'AtppoSirq. 
Sei^ev  rdv  68vvaVf  koX  /ie/j.<f>€To  8tti  ye  tvt66v 
07)plov  4vtI  fi^Xiaca,  /cat  dX^/ca  rpaOfiara  irotet. 
XA  fidrrjp  yeXdaaffa,  Ti>  5*  oOk  t<TOv  iaal  fieXLa-ffats ; 
Xw  Tvrdhi  fiiv  ^»;s,  rd  dk  rpaij/xara  dXlKa  iroieU  ; 

A  wicked  bee  once  filching  Eros  stung. 
As  from  hive  unto  hive  the  sly  god  flew. 

Looting  the  flower-sweet  honeycombs  among; 
With  finger-tips  all  pierced  he  cried  and  blew 

His  hand,  and  stamped  upon  the  ground  with  pain. 

And  vaulted  in  the  air;   to  Aphrodite 
Sadly  he  came  commencing  to  complain, 

"  Although  the  bee  is  small  his  wound  is  mighty." 

Then  said  his  mother  smiling,  "  Are  you  not 
A  creature  small  just  like  the  bee,  I  pray? 

But  ne'ertheless  it  must  not  be  forgot — 
The  cruel  wounds  you  deal — how  great  are  they!  " 


THE  ANACREONTEA  117 


ODE  XLI 

On  a  Banquet 

Let  us,  comrades,  cheerily  drink  wine, 
And  with  choral  chant  the  god  divine 
Praise  who  first  us  mortals  taught  to  dance, 
Him  who  will  the  joys  of  love  enhance. 
And  more  yielding  makes  the  tender  fair : 
Him  who  nerves  the  youth  in  love  to  dare. 
Loved  of  Cypris,  sire  of  tipsy  mirth, 
'Tis  to  him  the  Graces  owe  their  birth : 
He  brings  solace  to  the  eyes  that  weep, 
Through  his  power  is  sorrow  lulled  asleep. 
When  to  us  fair  youths  brimmed  beakers  bear 
Black  care  flies  upon  the  wind-stirred  air. 
Let  us  drink  the  goblet's  rosy  freight. 
Careless  of  inevitable  fate. 
What  avails  to  brood  and  pine  o'er  sorrow  ? 
Life  is  frail,  we  know  not  of  the  morrow. 


ii8  THE  ANACREONTEA 

When  the  bowl  has  made  elate  my  mind, 
Being  perfumed  I'm  to  dance  inclined, 
And  with  women  fair  delight  to  find. 
Let  the  dull  ascetic  still  despise 
Joys  that  from  the  vine's  shed  blood  arise. 
As  for  us  the  genial  bowl  we'll  quaff, 
Bacchus  praise  and  revel,  dance  and  laugh. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  119 

ODE  XLII 

The  Epicurean 

I  LOVE  the  dance  of  Bacchus,  and  desire 
With  blooming  youths  to  join  the  vocal  choir 
To  chords  responsive  of  the  dulcet  lyre. 

But  most  of  all  I  love  to  crown  my  hair 
With  purple  hyacinths,  and  eke  to  share 
Love's  blisses  wantoning  with  virgins  fair. 

The  shafts  of  envy,  malice,  jealousy, 

Sting  not  my  heart  nor  break  life's  harmony; 

Let  slander-loving  tongues  be  far  from  me. 

Broils  over  wine  I  hate ;  they  spoil  good  cheer, 
And  cause  the  revels  graceless  to  appear; 
But  dancing  to  the  lute's  soft  tones  and  clear — 

And  mixed  with  maids,  Come  dearest  ones,  I 

say,i 
Let  us  to  Venus  sweet  oblations  pay 
And  gaily  cull  life's  roses  while  we  may. 

*  I  have  retained  and  translated  the  line,  ^4pe,   ^/Xrarat, 
Xiyoi/xi,  which  Barnes  has  added  here  to  complete  the  sense. 

I 


I20  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XLIII 

The  Cicada 

Cicada  that  on  tall  tree  tops 
Singst,  sipping  morning's  dewy  drops, 
Thou  art  as  happy  as  a  king. 
Their  treasures  all  things  bring 

To  thee;  the  produce  of  the  fields, 
And  mellow  fruits  the  harvest  yields 
Are  thine;  what  life  is  merrier, 
0  summer's  harbinger! 

Thou  baskest  in  the  sun's  bright  rays, 
A  ceaseless  revel  are  thy  days; 
Thou  art  of  husbandmen  a  friend, 
And  mortals  thee  commend. 

The  maids  Pierian  on  thee  dote; 
Apollo  gave  a  tuneful  note 
To  thee,  thou  skilful  insect  sage, 
Unwasted  by  old  age. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  121 

Song-lover  free  from  flesh  and  blood, 
Earth-born,  to  thee  life  seemeth  good. 
Thou  art,  enthroned  on  lofty  trees, 
Blest  as  the  deities.* 

*  The  tettix  or  cicada  is  a  different  insect  from  our  grass- 
hopper. It  is  hemipterous  and  has  beautifully  marked  and 
variegated  wings.  It  is  fond  of  basking  in  the  sun  on  trees 
and  bushes,  and  gives  forth  a  shrill  chirping  musical  sound, 
which  it  makes  by  means  of  a  membrane  situated  at  the  base 
of  its  abdomen,  and  acted  upon  by  powerful  muscles.  The 
English  harvest-fly  is  of  the  same  genus.  Cf.  Byron,  Doit 
Juan,  Canto  III.  stanza  io6: — 

The  shrill  cicalas,  people  of  the  pine. 

Making  their  summer  lives  one  ceaseless  song, 

Were  the  sole  echoes  save  my  steed's  and  mine 
And  vesper  bells  that  rose  the  boughs  along; 

and  also  Tennyson's  poem  The  Grasshopper,  in  which  occur 
the  following  lines: — 

Armed  cap-a-pie 

Full  fair  to  see. 

Unknowing  fear, 

Undreading  loss, 
A  gallant  cavalier 
Sans  peur  et  sans  reproche ; 
In  sunlight  and  in  shadow 
The  Bayard  of  the  meadow. 


122  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XLIV 

On  a  Dream 

I  DREAMED  I  ran  with,  fleet 

Wings  on  my  shoulders,  and  Love,  having  lead 

Tied  to  his  little  feet, 

Pursued  and  overtook  me  as  I  fled. 

What  does  this  vision  mean  ? — 

I  think  that  though  in  amours  in  days  flown 

My  heart  has  unfettered  been 

I  am  enthralled  by  this  one  love  alone. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  123 

ODE  XLV 
The  Darts  of  Love 

Once  Vulcan  at  the  Lemnian  forges  making 
Arrows  for  Cupid,  skilfully  of  steel, 

The  new-made  weapons  Cytherea  taking 
Their  points  in  honey  dipped,  for  lover's 
weal. 

But  Cupid  mingled  gall :  Once  Mars  returning 
Full  armed  and  flushed  from  the  red  field 
of  war, 
A  massy  spear  he  brandished,  and  discerning 
Love's  shafts  he  said,  "  What  trifling  toys 
these  are !  " 

But  Cupid  said,  "  When  you've  received  this 
arrow 
You'll  find  it  heavy,"  whereupon  he  went 
And  gave  it  to  the  war-god;   its  touch  to  his 
marrow 
A  sharp  thrill  sent;   Cypris  her  merriment 


124  THE  ANACREONTEA 

In  vain  strove  to  conceal.     Mars  had  already 
Within  his  breast  felt  Love's  delicious  pain. 

"  Heavy  indeed  it  is,  come  take  it,"  said  he — 
But  Cupid,  "  As  a  gift  keep  what  you've 
ta'en." 


THE  ANACREONTEA  125 


ODE  XLVI 

The  Power  of  Gold 

Not  to  love  indeed  is  pain, 

Painful  'tis  to  be  love's  thrall, 
But  to  love  and  love  in  vain 

Is  the  greatest  pain  of  all. 
Vain  is  learning,  genius,  wit. 

Since  men  bow  alone  to  gold ; 

Birth  and  breeding,  lineage  old — 
All  are  trampled  on  by  it. 

Cursed  be  he  who  first  to  light 

Brought  this  sordid  metal,  may- 
He  be  plunged  in  endless  night. 

And  his  memory  fade  away. 
Gold  rends  every  sacred  tie, 

Friendship  breaks  and  kindred  parts ; 

Envy  breeds,  and  hardens  hearts, 
Kindles  strife  and  enmity. 


126  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Lust  of  gold  war's  ruin  brings ; 
Many  a  dark  crime  from  it  springs. 
Worse  than  this — yea,  this  is  worse, 
'Tis  the  lover's  fatal  curse. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  127 


ODE  XLVII 

"Youth  of  the  Heart 

I  LOVE  a  cheerful  old  fellow, 

When  his  age  has  made  him  mellow, 

And  a  light-hearted  youth  I  love. 
But  when  an  old  man  appears 
In  the  dance  despite  his  years. 
Though  the  whiteness  of  his  tresses 
That  his  youth  has  fled  confesses, 

His  antics  a  young  heart  prove. 


128  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  XLVIII 

Moderation 

To  me  the  lyre  of  Homer  bring, 
But  minus  the  ensanguined  string: 
Let,  too,  be  brought  the  measured  bowl; 
The  laws  of  drinking  from  this  scroll 
I  will  declare. 

With  wine  grown  merry  and  elate, 
Yet  still  not  in  an  ebrious  state, 
I'll  join  the  Dionysian  choir. 
And  trill  to  music  of  the  lyre 
A  jovial  air. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  129 

ODE  XLIX 
To  A  Painter 

Come,  thou  best  of  painters,  prithee  listen  to 

my  sprightly  lyre. 
Paint   upon   the   speaking   canvas   such   fair 

things  as  I  desire : 
First  depict  me  smiling  cities,   strong  with 

ramparts,  towers  and  walls. 
And   the   wild   flute-mellowed   revels   of  the 

sportive  Bacchanals. 
Limn  me,  then,  the  joys  of  lovers,  paint  me 

Paphian  delights. 
Bridal  torches,  merry  dancers,  secret  hymeneal 

rites.^ 

1  It  is  probable  that  in  this  ode  Anacreon  had  in  view  the 
image  of  peace  engraved  by  Vulcan  on  the  shield  of  Achilles. 
Vide  Iliad,  Book  XVIII.— Fawkes. 


130  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  L 

The  Beneficence  of  Bacchus 

The  god  descends  who  makes  the  young 

In  toil  unwearied,  in  love  bold; 
He  adds  persuasion  to  man's  tongue, 

Which  wins  a  maid  as  much  as  gold. 
He  gives  the  dancer  grace  and  ease, 

He  points  the  jest  and  aids  the  song. 
He  makes  dull  care  fly  with  the  breeze. 

The  coward  brave,  the  feeble  strong. 

He  guards  the  green-leaved  spreading  vine. 

Whereon  the  ripe  grape-clusters  swell, 
Soon  to  be  crushed  in  streaming  wine; 

His  darling  grapes,  he  loves  them  well. 
O!   when  we  quaff  the  rosy  juice 

We  freedom  find  from  every  woe. 
Our  features  all  their  pallor  lose, 

Our  cheeks  with  mantling  colour  glow. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  131 

Then  let  us  pledge  a  health  around, 
'Tis  the  best  medicine  there  is; 

And  Bacchus  pray  to  keep  us  sound 
Till  next  year  brings  new  vintage  bliss. ^ 

*Some  lines  in  a  poem  written  by  Ben  Jonson  over  the 
door  at  the  entrance  to  the  Apollo,  a  room  in  the  Devil 
Tavern,  Temple  Bar,  where  he  used  to  quaff  his  beloved 
canary,  have  some  afi&nity  to  this  ode: — 

Wine  it  is  the  milk  of  Venus, 

And  the  poet's  horse  accounted ; 

Ply  it,  and  you  all  are  mounted. 

'Tis  the  true  Phoebean  liquor. 

Cheers  the  brain,  makes  wit  the  quicker. 

Pays  all  debts,  cures  all  diseases. 

And  at  once  three  senses  pleases. 

John  Oldham  (1653-1683),  a  poet  popular  in  his  day,  but 
now  little  known,  has  the  following  passage  on  the  power  of 
wine,  written  in  a  curious  mixture  of  heroic  and  Alexandrine 
verses  :■ — 

Assist  almighty  wine,  for  thou  alone  hast  power. 
Assist,  while  with  just  praise  I  thee  adore. 
Thou  art  the  world's  great  soul,  that  heavenly  fire, 
Which  dost  our  dull  half-kindled  mass  inspire. 
We  nothing  gallant  and  above  ourselves  produce 
Till  thou  dost  finish  man,  and  reinfuse. 
Thou  art  the  only  source  of  all  the  world  calls  great; 
Thou  didst  the  poets  first,  and  they  the  gods  create: 
To  thee  their  rage,  their  heat,  their  flame  they  owe; 
Thou  must  half  share  with  art — and  nature  too: 
They  owe  their  glory,  and  renown  to  thee; 
Thou  giv'st  their  verse  and  them  eternity. 


132  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  LI 
On  a  Disk  Exhibiting  Aphrodite 

Here  hath  some  sculptor  carved  with  bold 

and  skilful  hand 
The  wandering  waste  of  waves,   the  silver- 
fretted  sand; 
And  shown  with  art  divine  Cythera  from  the 

sea 
Emergent!     Ah,  the  peer  of  even  gods  is  he. 
He  pictures  her  indeed  in  all  her  naked  pride, 
Only  what  may  not  be  revealed  the  billows 

hide. 
White  as  a  blown  foam-flower  she  floats  upon 

the  wave, 
Obsequious  waters  eagerly  her  body  lave : 
She  cleaves  them  with  her  rose-tipped  breasts 

and  shoulders  white; 
With  her  all-gracious  smile  she   makes   the 

world  more  bright. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  133 

She  colours  as  with  rose  the  ambient  briny 

ways, 
She  gleams  a  lily  fair  through  violet-tinctured 

haze. 
Eros  and  Himerus  upon  the  mimic  tide 
Laughing,  with  reins  loose-flung,  two  sportive 

dolphins  ride. 
Strange  creatures  of  the  deep  round  Paphia 

crowd  to  pay 
Homage  to  beauty's  queen,  resplendent  from 

the  spray .^ 

*  Aphrodite  Anadyomene  has  always  been  a  favourite  sub- 
ject for  poets  and  painters  who  have  striven  to  express,  on 
the  glowing  page  or  speaking  canvas,  the  enchanting  visions 
of  ideal  beauty  which  in  golden  dreams  and  reveries  have 
haunted  their  souls. 

Tennyson  in  The  Princess,  VII.  has  a  fine  passage  on  this 
subject: — 

.  .  .  she  came 
From  barren  deeps  to  conquer  all  with  love; 
And  down  the  streaming  crystals  dropped;   and  she 
Far-fleeted  by  the  purple  island-sides. 
Naked,  a  double  light  in  air  and  wave, 
To  meet  her  Graces  where  they  decked  her  out 
For  worship  without  end. 


134  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  LII 

The  Vintage 

Virgins  and  men  with  skilful  care 
Clusters  of  purple  grapes  in  baskets  bear 

Upon  their  shoulders;  being  thrown 
In  the  wine-press,  they  are  trodden  by  men 
alone. 

They  chant  the  joyous  vintage  hymn, 
Seeing  the  wine  foam  o'er  the  wine-vat's  brim. 

When  old  age  drinks,  grown  debonair 
He  joins  the  dance,  and  shakes  his  silver  hair. 

But  the  youth  amorous  and  red, 
With  thrilling  thoughts  of  wine  and  beauty 
bred — 

Surprising  in  a  secret  glade 
On  a  leaf-couch  asleep,  a  tender  maid — 


THE  ANACREONTEA  135 

With  kisses  and  words  that  breathe  love's 
fire 
He  entices  her  to  grant  him  his  desire. 

But  when  no  fond  entreaties  may 
Prevail,  he  forces  her,  unwilling  to  betray 

Her  bridal  treasures;   'twas  the  wine 
That  sent  him  courage  for  his  rude  design. 


ODE   LIII 

The  Rose 

Brow-bound  with  garlands  of  the  gracious 

spring 
The  splendours  of  the  royal  rose  I  sing : 
The  joy  of  mortals  and  the  gods'  delight, 
Emblem  of  tender  love  and  beauty  bright! 
The  flower-fair  Graces  in  their  flowing  hair 
Thee  in  the  Loves'  all-flowery  season  wear. 


136  THE  ANACREONTEA 

The  Queen  of  Beauty  with,  love  glowing  warm 
With  thee  adorns  her  lovely  amorous  form. 
In  song  and  fable  ever  blooms  this  flower, 
Worthy  alone  to  deck  the  Muses'  bower. 

Sweet  'tis  to  whom  the  rose  itself  displays 
In  thorny  paths,  and  unfrequented  ways. 
And  sweet  to  him  who  plucks  it  fain  to  cherish 
It  ere  its  fresh  voluptuous  fragrance  perish. 
At  feast  and  wassail  rightly  it  hath  place 
And  serves  the  Bacchic  festivals  to  grace. 
Nature  has  borrowed  its  hues  herself  to  adorn, 
For  rosy-fingered  is  night-conquering  morn. 
The  nymphs  and  naiads  too  are  rosy-armed. 
By  Venus'  rosy  skin  are  senses  charmed  : 
Its  soothing  power  upon  the  sick  is  shed, 
And  its  immortal  scent  embalms  the  dead. 
The  rose  prevails  o'er  time  'fore  whom  all  falls. 
And  its  old  age  past  prime  of  youth  recalls. 

On  this  wise  was  it  born;  when  from  the  sea 
The  Cyprian  Queen  foam-girt  rose  gloriously. 
And  Pallas,  fearful  sight  to  powers  above. 
Sprang  armed  for  battle  from  the  brain  of 
Jove— 


THE  ANACREONTEA  137 

'Twas  then  an  infant  flower  upon  the  earth 
In  all  its  peerless  beauty  first  had  birth. 
The  gods  besprinkled  it  with  nectar  showers, 
(A  blushing  tide)   and  crowned  it  queen  of 

flowers ; 
And  bade  it  bloom  in  festive  wreaths  to  twine 
And  bind  the  temples  of  the  god  of  wine.^ 

1  Different  accounts  are  given  of  the  origin  of  the  rose. 
Bion,  Idyllium  I.  line  66,  says  that  the  rose  sprang  from  the 
blood  of  Adonis  {alfxa  pddov  rlKrei.)  and  the  author  of  the 
Vigil  of  Venus  tells  us  that  it  received  its  colour  in  the  same 
way  {rosa  fuses  aprino  de  cruore) . 

The  rose  was  held  in  high  estimation  by  the  ancients.  It 
was  used  for  medicinal  purposes,  in  embalming  the  dead,  and 
in  decking  tombs.  It  was  the  symbol  of  silence,  being  dedi- 
cated by  Eros  to  Harpocrates  in  order  that  he  might  conceal 
the  amours  of  Venus.  It  was  thought  that  to  wear  garlands 
of  roses  prevented  intoxication,  and  when  placed  in  the  room 
at  convivial  meetings,  its  presence  signified  that  all  which 
occurred  thereat  was  to  be  kept  sub  rosa. 


138  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  LIV 

Young  Again 

When  I  see  a  youthful  train 
Mingling  in  a  festive  ring, 
I  myself  seem  young  again. 

Then  unto  the  dance  I  fly; 

Flowers,  O  my  Cybeba,  bring; 
Wreathe  my  temples  airily. 

Cursed  age  be  far  away, 

I  will  wanton  with  the  young. 
And  as  merry  be  as  they. 

Bring  the  wine-vat's  sparkling  treasure, 

Mellow  wine  will  loose  my  tongue 
While  I  tread  the  maze  of  pleasure. 

Witness  now  an  old  man's  might. 

First  the  revellers  among 
Singing,  drinking  all  the  night. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  139 


ODE  LV 

On  Lovers 

A  BRAND  of  flame 
On  a  steed's  hip  proclaims  the  owner's  name. 

When  Parthians  go 
Past,  them  by  their  tiaras  one  may  know. 

So  when  I  see 
Lovers,  by  instinct  they  are  known  to  me, 

For  they  reveal 
By  looks  and  acts  what  they  cannot  conceal. 


I40  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  LVI 

The  Love-Draught^ 

Once  wandering  in  Flora's  bowers 
To  gather  wreaths  of  fragrant  flowers, 

I  found  love's  god  asleep 
Among  the  roses;  in  my  wine 
I  plunged  him — of  the  draught  divine 

I  drank  a  potion  deep. 
Now  in  my  limbs  I  feel  the  sting 
Of  his  light  pinions  fluttering. 

» This  ode  is  ascribed  by  some  to  Julian,  King  of  Egypt,  who 
wrote  several  elegant  little  pieces.  Being  supposed  to  possess 
much  beauty,  it  is  given  in  most  translations  of  Anacreon. — 
Thomas  Bourne. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  141 

ODE  LVII 

Epithalamium 

{Indited  on  the  marriage  of  Stratocles  and 
Myrilla) 

Cypris,  queen  of  goddesses,  Love,  of  mortals 

kiig, 
Hymer,  true  source  of  pleasure — this  trinity 

I  sng— 
To  Cypris  and  Love  and  Hymen  homage  and 

prase  I  bring. 

Behold  ihy  bride,  0  Stratocles;    favourite  of 

Cypris,  rise! 
Husbanc  of  Myrilla,  gaze  in  thy  love's  bright 

eyes 
Fair  as  i  flower  she  gleams;    haste,  for  the 

dayljght  dies. 

The  rose  b  the  queen  of  flowers,  and  of  virgins 
the  rose 


142  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Is  Myrilla  ^ — coy,  yet  with  desire  she  glows. 
Haste,  groom,   in   thine  amorous  arms   thy 
sweet  blushing  bride  enclose.  / 

With  the  fervour  of  youth  thus  shall  ye  saare 
delight  / 

Through  the  witching  hours  of  the  aU-too- 
soon-fled  night, 

Until  the  darkness  melts  'neath  the  rsys  of 
the  lord  of  light. 

May  prosperity's  sun  shine  on  the  genid  bed, 
May  the  gracious  gifts  of  the  gods  on  the 

fortunate  pair  be  shed, 
And  theirs  be  a  progeny  famed  for  beaaty  and 

lustihead.2  | 

^'?6Sov  iv  Kdpaii  Mi'piXXa.     Cf.  Tennyson,  MatiX,  XII.   9: 
Queen  rose  of  the  rosebud  garden  of  girlj. 

^  Amongst  existing  epithalamiums  the  Canticks  or  Song 
of  Solomon  takes  high  rank.  Some  think  the  royal  sage 
indited  it  on  the  occasion  of  his  marriage  with  Pharaoh's 
daughter.  The  Jews  were  not  allowed  to  read  i;  until  they 
were  thirty  years  old,  lest  in  the  heyday  of  volupuous  youth 
they  might  prefer  it  in  a  literal  instead  of  a  spi'itual  sense. 
Stesichorus  was  the  author  of  a  remarkably  fine  ejithalamium 
which  unfortunately  is  not  extant.  That  of  Tieocritus  on 
Helen  and  Menelaus  is  deservedly  admired.  Brunck  has 
surmised  that  the  Syracusan  poet  wrote  this  idyl  with  an  eye 


THE  ANACREONTEA  143 

ODE  LVIII 

Dispraise  of  Gold 

When  gold  hies  from  me,  faithless  runagate, 
On  feet  swift  as  the  chariot-wheels  of  fate, 

I  follow  him  not :   who  ever  knew 

One  a  thing  hateful  to  pursue  ? 

to  the  Song  of  Solomon,  many  passages  of  which  strikingly 
receive  illustration  from  it.  That  of  Catullus  on  the  nuptials 
of  Peleus  and  Thetis  is  incontestably  a  paragon  of  poems  of 
this  kind.  Seneca  has  introduced  one  in  his  tragedy  of 
Medea  on  the  marriage  of  Jason  and  Creusa.  Statins  has 
written  one  on  Stella  and  Violantella,  and  Claudian  one  on 
Honorius  and  Marca,  the  daughter  of  Stilicho. 

The  elegant  epithalamium  of  Johannes  Secundus  (John 
Everard)  is  equalled  in  licentiousness  by  the  Cento  Nuptialis 
of  Ausonius,  which  is  a  mosaic  formed  from  the  works  of 
Virgil.  It  was  composed  at  the  command  of  Emperor 
Jovian,  who  himself  wrote  verses  in  similar  vein.  Kelly 
(the  translator  of  Catullus)  remarks  that  a  great  number  of 
specimens  will  be  found  in  the  Deliciae,  which  are  the  work  of 
modem  Latin  poets.  He  mentions  George  Buchanan's  epi- 
thalamium on  Francis  II.  and  the  ill-starred  Mary  Stuart, 
and  one  by  another  canny  Scot  yclept  Thomas  Rhoedus — 
the  former  remarkable  for  grandeur  of  thought  and  pomp  of 
style,  and  the  latter  for  the  elaborate  oddity  of  its  libertine 
allusions.  That  of  Spenser  on  his  own  marriage  is  a  master- 
piece distinguished  by  purity  of  sentiment  and  felicity  of 
expression. 


144  THE  ANACREONTEA 

But  when  released  from  false  and  fickle  gold 
The  cares  of  life  upon  me  have  no  hold ; 
They  fly  with  the  swift  winds — my  lyre 
Breathes  only  love  and  soft  desire. 

Then  when  my  merry  tuneful  spirit  learns 
Gold  to  despise  the  runagate  returns, 
And  bringing  in  of  griefs  a  crowd 
He  sues  me,  although  once  so  proud. 

In  humble  wise  him  for  a  friend  to  choose, 
And  prove  a  traitor  to  the  lyric  muse : 
But  vainly  treacherous  gold  beguiles — 
My  harp  is  better  than  his  wiles. 

Thou  hast,  0  gold,  by  means  of  craft  and  fraud 
Supplanted  love — men  praise  thee  as  a  god; 
The  lyre  indeed  thou  wouldst  sordid  make. 
And  the  charm  from  true  love  kisses  take. 

The  miser's  avarice  thou  mayst  incite, 
But  as  for  me  I  scorn  thy  subtle  might. 
-   Of  my  lyre's  music  I  shall  not 
'  Because  of  thee  abate  a  jot. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  14s 


ODE    LIX 

On  Spring 

How  pleasant  'tis  at  ease  to  wander  through 

The  flower-enamelled  meads, 
Strolling  when  winds  are  soft  and  skies  are  blue 

Whither  one's  fancy  leads. 
How  sweet,  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  vine 

Which  tender  tendrils  wreathes. 
With  a  deep-bosomed  maid  to  sit  supine. 

Who  wholly  of  Cypris  breathes. 


146  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  LX 

The  Vision 

One  night  as  on  my  broidered  bed 
In  sleep's  delightful  trance  I  lay, 

Midst  dreamland  fancies  quickly  fled 
I  saw  the  Teian  poet  gay. 

I  heard  him  speak;   to  his  embrace 

I  rushed,  and  kissed  his  smiling  face. 

Though  full  of  years  he  still  was  hale, 
His  hair  was  white,  but  his  clear  eyes 

Sparkled;  his  lips  a  spicy  gale 
Exhaled,  and  sweetest  melodies 

Rang  from  his  lyre;  his  steps  Love  stayed; 

Round  him  thronged  many  a  laughing  maid. 

He  took  from  his  brows  a  garland  bright 
Of  divers  radiant  flowers  entwined, 

And  gave  it  to  me — ^with  delight 

The  which  I  round  my  head  did  bind. 

It  proved  a  source  of  pleasing  dole. 

Love  ever  since  has  fired  my  soul. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  147 

ODE  LXI 

On  Apollo  ^ 

Now  will  I  awake  my  lyre 

Though  no  Pythian  laurel  should 
Recompense  my  muse's  fire, 

Practice  for  a  poet's  good. 
With  my  ivory  plectrum  I 

Clear-toned  melodies  will  make; 
To  my  lyre's  responsive  sigh 

Forth  my  voice  in  music  break. 
To  the  gold-tressed  lord  of  light 

Shall  the  Phrygian  measure  swell, 
As  a  graceful  swan  and  white  ^ 

1  Suidas  tells  us  that  Anacreon  undoubtedly  wrote  hymns 
in  honour  of  the  gods.  Cf.  Odes  V.  and  VIII.  of  the  genuine 
remains. 

-  Cf.  Iliad,  II.  11.  459  ff- :— 

— k6kvup  dovXixoSelpuv, 
*A<rl(p  iv  XetfiCjpi,  KaVarplov  dfKpl  piedpa, 
Bvda  Kal  ivda  iroTuvTai  dya\\6fj,€va  Trrep&yeatnv, 
KXa77775di'  'rrpoKa.di.i6vT(av,  ff/xapayei  di  re  \eifnbv  .  .   . 

As  when  in  Asian  meads,  or  by  the  springs 
Of  far  Cayster,  flocks  of  snowy  swans 
From  many  quarters  having  flown,  convene, 
And  all  the  air  with  sudden  clamour  rings. 


148  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Leaving  some  stream-silvered  dell 
Soars  through  summer-coloured  skies, 

Rousing  with  his  winnowing  wings 
Airs  that  murmur  as  he  flies — 

Phoebus,  thee  my  famed  muse  sings. 
Sacred  are  the  tripod,  bay, 

And  the  laurel  unto  thee; 
I  will  tell,  O  God  of  day, 

Of  the  nymph  who  would  not  be 
Leman  to  thee;  vain,  all  vain. 

Was  thy  passion,  for  the  maid 
To  a  virgin  live  was  fain, 

So  she  sought  the  forest  shade. 
And  when  thou  pursuing  keen 

Sought'st  to  clasp  her  glowing  charms, 
She  a  plant  became;  and  green 

Branches  filled  thy  eager  arms. 
But,  my  muse,  no  more  declare 

Any  heavenly  paramour's 
Love  for  mortal  maiden  fair. 

Rather  sing  thine  own  amours. 
True  be  to  the  Teian  lyre. 

Let  thy  liquid  love-lays  float; 


THE  ANACREONTEA  149 

Let  thy  measures  still  suspire 
Many  a  soft  voluptuous  note, 

That  the  youth  who  feels  the  spell 
Of  Cythera's  arts  divine 

May  my  tuneful  songs  love  well, 
Songs  that  stir  his  blood  like  wine. 


ODE  LXII 
On  His  Wish  ^ 

I  WOULD  I  were 

A  sweet-toned  ivory  lyre. 
That  blooming  youths  might  bear 

Me  in  the  Bacchic  choir. 

I  would  I  were 

A  wine-cup  of  bright  gold, 
That  me  some  woman  fair 

Pressed  to  her  lips  might  hold. 

*  This  fragment  is  by  some  attributed  to  Alcaeus. 


THE 

PRINCIPAL  REMAINS  OF 

ANACREON 

ODE  I 

Love  and  Disdain 

0  BEAR  me  hence,  Love,  toward  the  sky 
Wrapt  in  a  sun-gilt  purple  cloud, 
And  stay  me  with  thy  pinions  bright. 
Thou  hast  fired  my  soul  to  seek  delight 
In  Paphian  pleasures,  but  the  proud 
White  Lesbian  nymph  for  whom  I  sigh  ^ 
From  my  white  tresses  mocking  turns, 
And  for  a  younger  lover  burns. 

1  This  ode  which  Chamaeleon  of  Pontus  in  his  treatise  on 
Sappho  says  that  some  assert  Anacreon  wrote  concerning  the 
divine  Lesbian  poetess,  but  which  for  chronological  reasons 
could  not  possibly  refer  to  her,  has  been  preserved  by 
Athenaeus,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  no  less  than  twenty- 
one  of  the  fragments.  This  poem  may  be  complete. 
ISO 


THE  ANACREONTEA  151 

ODE  II 

On  His  Old  Age^ 

My    brows    are    wrinkled,    my    tresses    are 
white, 

My  youth  has  fled  as  a  swift  dream  flies, 
With  its  careless  glory,  and  fresh  delight — 

Soon  death  will  darken  my  mortal  eyes. 
Not  many  more  days  to  me  remain 

For  jest  and  laughter  and  wine  and  song : 
I  think  of  the  time  with  ceaseless  pain 

When   death   will   chill    me — grim    terrors 
throng : 

*  These  lines  are  mournful  in  tone,  and  fraught  with  boding 
gloom.  They  may  have  been  indited  at  a  time  when  the  en- 
chantments of  Armida's  garden  had  palled  upon  the  poet's 
senses.  Possibly,  too,  as  in  the  case  of  others  who  have 
deviated  from  the  path  of  moral  rectitude,  he  was  unable  to 
support  the  disabilities  of  age  and  the  approach  of  death 
with  fortitude  and  equanimity.  Several  other  fragments 
are  in  dolorous  vein.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  like  many  other  possessors  of  the  mens  divinior,  Ana- 
creon  was  not  at  all  times  free  from  "  megrims,  firks,  and 
melancholies." 

h 


152  THE  ANACREONTEA 

For  the  realm  of  Pluto  is  dreary  and  dark, 
Whither  all  most  go  when  this  earth-life  ends ; 

And  none  when  flyeth  the  vital  spark 
From  the  house  of  Hades  again  ascends.* 


ODE  HI 

Judicious  Revelry 

Haste  thee,  boy,  the  bowl  of  Bacchus  bring, 

Mingle  crystal  water  with  the  wine,^ 
This  will  not  enflame,  but  make  take  wing 

» Cf.  Catullus,  Carm.  V.  :— 

Soles  occidere  et  redire  possunt; 
Nobis  cum  semel  occidit  brevis  lux 
Nox  est  perpetua  una  dormienda. 

Suns  may  set  and  suns  may  rise. 
But  when  fadeth  our  brief  light. 

We  must  sleep  with  sightless  eyes 
Through  a  never-ending  night. 

*  It  was  customary  among  the  ancients  to  appoint  a  master 
of  the  revels  at  their  drinking  bouts  and  festal  entertainments, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  regulate  the  size  of  the  cups  and  the 
quantity  each  was  to  drink,  and  to  see  that  due  decorum  was 
observed.  He  wzis  called  by  the  Greeks  S5rmposiarch,  and 
by  the  Latins  magister  vel  arbiter  bibendi.  He  was  usually 
chosen  by  the  cast  of  a  die.  His  office  was  somewhat  similar 
to  that  of  the  Lord  of  Unreason  or  Abbot  of  Misrule  of  the 


THE  ANACREONTEA  153 

Care  the  black — at  this  we  draw  the  line : 
Let  no  Scythian  clamours,  quarrels  malign,^ 
Spoil  our  bout,  or  angry  voices  ring — 
But  be  merry,  hearts,  and  catches  sing. 

feudal  ages.  This  fragment,  which  is  quoted  by  Athenaeus, 
is  among  those  that  throw  light  on  Anacreon's  tastes  and 
disposition,  and  gives  us  also  some  idea  of  how  the  convivial 
meetings  of  the  better  class  of  the  Greeks  were  conducted. 

» The  Scythians,  a  barbarous  people,  were  noted  for  being 
addicted  to  quarrelling  in  their  cups. 

Cf.  Hor.  Od.  I.  27:— 

Natis  in  usum  laetitiae  scyphis 
Pugnare,  Thracum  est;  tollite  barbarum 
Morem,  verecundumque  Bacchum 
Sanguineis  prohibete  rixis. 

When  the  sweet  constraining  power 
Allures  us,  of  the  social  hour — 
Comrades,  let  us  not,  I  pray. 
In  a  barbarous  Thracian  way 
Of  the  bowl  the  pleasures  spoil 
By  unseemly  strife  or  broil. 


154  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  IV 

Allegory  ^ 

Thracian  filly,  coyly  looking 
At  me  with  coquettish  glances, 
Young  and  skittish  flying  from  me, 

Thinkest  thou  I  have  no  skill  ? 
Nay,  but  know  the  truth,  untamed  one, 
I  could  put  the  bridle  on  thee. 
And  the  reins  with  firm  hands  grasping 

Guide  thee  to  the  race's  goal. 
But  the  flowering  meads  thou  hauntest. 
Gambolling  in  frisky  frolics. 
Since  no  skilful  daring  rider 

Yet  to  mount  thee  hast  thou  found. 

» This  beautiful  poem  of  twelve  lines  may  possibly  be  com- 
plete. It  exhibits  Anacreon  to  great  advantage  as  a  skilful 
metrist,  and  as  the  possessor  of  a  rare  loveliness  and  distinc- 
tion of  style.  The  rapid  succession  of  tribrachs  gives  it  life 
and  motion. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  155 

ODE  V 

A  Prayer  to  Artemis 

On  my  knees  do  I  entreat  thee,  O  Pheraean 
Goddess     golden  -  helmed,     of     wild     beasts 

huntress. 
Come  with  all  thy  train  of  nymphs  Pelasgian 
To  Lethe's  whirlpools. 

Daughter  of  Zeus,  swift  slayer  of  the  mountain 
Deer,  view  propitiously  this  suffering  city :  ^ 
Cheer    thy    stricken    people;     no    barbarous 
citizens 
Crave  thy  divine  aid. 

*  This  hymn  is  cited  by  Hephaestion.  It  is  supposed  that 
the  city  in  whose  behalf  the  poet  supplicates  the  goddess  was 
Magnesia,  which  was  situate  on  the  river  Lethe,  near  Ephesus. 
It  is  thought  that  this  hymn  was  written  on  the  occasion  of 
some  battle  wherein  the  Magnesians  were  defeated. 


iS6  THE  ANACREONTEA 


ODE  VI 

A  Prayer  to  Love  ^ 

0  Eros,  conqueror  of  hearts,  with  whom 
Disport  the  blue-eyed  nymphs  and  Cypris 
fair: 

With  eyes  uplift  to  Ida's  leafy  gloom 
I  breathe  to  thee  a  prayer. 

The  maid  for  whom  I  glow  thy  power  defies. 

Her  snow-cold  bosom  melt  with  thy  fond 
fire; 
That  she  moved  by  my  importunities 

May  grant  my  heart's  desire. 

» We  axe  indebted  to  Dion  Chrysostom  for  preserving  this 
fragment  of  a  supplication  to  the  god  of  love. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  157 


ODE  Vll 

Love  and  Age 

When  Love  beholds  my  beard  that  flows 
White  as  the  ocean's  snowy  spray, 
He  flies  me  swift  as  the  eagle's  flight 
On  rustling  wings  of  golden  light, 
And  seems  to  murmur  as  he  goes, 

"  Old  fellow,  you  have  had  your  day." 


158  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  VIII 

Love  the  All-Subduer  ^ 

The  god  of  love  I  sing 

Who    garlands    bears    of    many  -  coloured 
flowers ; 
Hearts  ever  conquering, 

Mightiest  of  masters,  subtle  power  of  powers, 
Thou  rul'st  the  gods  and  all 
Mortals  thy  wiles  enthrall. 

1  In  this  fragment  of  a  hymn  in  Clemens  Alexandrinus  we 
have  the  old  conception  of  Eros  which  obtained  in  the  age 
of  Anacreon.  In  the  time  of  the  early  lyric  poets  the  god  of 
love  was  represented  as  a  youth  of  surpassing  beauty,  verg- 
ing on  manhood,  grave  and  dignified,  with  a  deep  expression 
in  his  eyes  which  appears  so  effectively  in  the  sculpture  of 
Praxiteles.  But  shortly  after  the  death  of  Alexander,  which 
fell  out  in  323  B.C.,  Eros  began  to  be  depicted  as  a  sportive 
and  mischievous  elf — a  conception  more  in  keeping  with  the 
traits  and  attributes  which  were  now  assigned  to  him. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  159 

ODE  IX 

On  Artemon  * 

It  likes  me  not  that  fair  Eurypyle 

Loves  now  notorious  Artemon.     Erst  he 

(A  mark  for  man's  contempt  and  gibe  and  jape) 

Wore  a  scant  head-dress  conical  in  shape. 

His  feet  encased  were  in  coarse  wooden  shoes 

Such  as  the  poorest  of  the  rabble  use : 

An  untanned  buU's-hide  was  wrapped  round 

his  breast, 
Fit  covering  for  a  rotten  shield  at  best. 
Even  thus  arrayed,  of  reputation  evil, 

*  In  this  satiric  fragment,  as  in  the  fragments  of  his  hymns, 
we  are  afforded  proof  of  Anacreon's  genius.  The  green-eyed 
monster — the  tyrant  of  the  mind — is  probably  the  key-note 
of  these  vigorous  and  mordant  lines;  for  we  are  told  in  an 
epigram  in  the  Greek  Anthology  that  the  poet  was  enamoured 
of  Eurypyle.  Artemon,  as  Chamaeleon  of  Pontus  reported 
in  his  essay  on  Anacreon,  was  yclept  irepKpopijrd^  or  infamous, 
because  he  lived  luxuriously,  and  had  himself  carried  about  on 
a  couch.  He  had  formerly  suffered  from  poverty  but  all  at 
once  had  become  wealthy.  It  is  difi&cult  to  translate  these 
verses  with  any  degree  of  point  and  elegance  without  having 
recourse  to  the  liberties  of  paraphrase. 


i6o  THE  ANACREONTEA 

With  drabs  and  bakers  did  he  play  the  devil. 
In  pillory  oft  he  stood;  on  racking  wheel 
Oft  was  he  tortured,  and  full  many  a  weal 
By  well-deserved  scourge  marked  on  his  back. 
But  now  this  son  of  Cyce  hath  no  lack 
Of  gold  and  gear,  triumphant  in  his  car 
He  rides :  of  mushroom  fame  he  shines  a  star; 
From  day  to  day  luxuriously  he  fares. 
And  golden  pendants  in  his  ears  he  wears. 
Over  his  head  he  bears,  as  women  do. 
An  ivory  screen — ^the  roynish  parvenu ! 


THE  ANACREONTEA     i6i 


ODE  X 

Contentment 

I  CRAVE  not  Amalthaea's  horn ;  ^ 
O'er  Arganthonius'  ^  domain 
Long  weary  years  I'd  scorn  to  reign, 

And  be  with  cares  of  kingcraft  worn. 
One  little  hour  of  wine-bred  bliss 
To  me  indeed  much  better  is. 

*  It  was  fabled  that  this  horn  became  filled  with  what- 
ever the  possessor  desired.  It  was  the  original  of  the  cor- 
nucopia as  a  general  symbol  of  plenty.  Cf.  the  purse  and 
wishing  cap  of  Fortunatus,  the  lamp  of  Aladdin,  the  carpet 
of  Prince  Ahmed,  the  helmet  of  Pluto,  and  the  ring  of  Gyges. 

'  Arganthonius,  who  flourished  in  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ,  was  a  king  of  Tartessus  in  Spain.  It  is  said  that  he 
occupied  the  throne  for  eighty  years,  and  lived,  according  to 
Pliny,  one  hundred  and  twenty,  or  according  to  the  over- 
credulous  Italicus,  three  hundred  years. 


i62  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XI 
To  His  Page 

Come  ho!   sweet  page,  pray  fetch  for  me 
A  flagon  of  my  favourite  wine, 

And  let  it  mixed  with  water  be. 
(I  will  be  moderate,  I  opine) 

For  I  am  fain  once  more  to  prove 

The  nectarous  joys  of  wine  and  love. 


ODE  xn 

Praise  of  Beauty 

On  manchet  bread,  and  cake,  and  wine 

In  simple  dainty  wise  I  dine, 

And  then  I  take  my  sounding  lyre 

And  sing  with  rapt  poetic  fire 

The  maid  who  is  my  soul's  desire — 

A  graceful  nymph  with  starlight  eyne. 

And  purple  hair,  and  form  divine. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  163 

ODE  XIII 
The  Lover's  Leap  ^ 

Methinks  I'll  seek  Leucadia's  sombre  steep 

To  there  essay  the  lover's  leap; 
And  either  with  my  life  or  sorrows  part, 

For  hopeless  love  distracts  my  heart. 


ODE  XIV 

The  Flight  from  Battle 

Hard  by  the  river's  shelving  banks 
I  left  the  broken,  scattered  ranks; 
And  having  cast  away  my  burnished  shield, 
I  fled  apace  from  the  red  battle-field. 

» This  fragment  has  been  supposed  by  some  to  refer  to 
the  tradition  that  the  ardent  and  gifted  Sappho  committed 
suicide  by  throwing  herself  into  the  sea  from  the  Leucadian 
rock,  on  account  of  unrequited  love  for  Phaon. 


i64  THE  ANACREONTEA 

ODE  XV 

On  Company  ^ 

I  HATE  the  man  who  o'er  the  wine-brimmed 
bowl 
Sings  ever  of  war  and  conquest ;  he  delights 
Me  most  who  wit  with  lyric  gifts  unites, 

And  to  love's  charms  divine  gives  up  his  soul. 


ODE  XVI 

To  Leucaspis 

My  magadis^2  with  twenty  strings 
In  praise  of  thee  most  sweetly  sings, 
O  fair  Leucaspis,  and  in  sooth 
Thine  is  the  very  flower  of  youth. 

*  This  brief  fragment  is  the  only  specimen  we  possess  of 
Anacreon's  elegiac  poetry.  It  has  been  preserved  by 
Athenaeus.     It  is  thought  to  shed  light  on  the  poet's  tastes. 

'  A  foreign,  probably  Egyptian,  instrument  shaped  some- 
what like  a  harp,  with  twenty  strings  arranged  in  octaves. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  165 

ODE  XVII 

The  Cup  of  Death 

0  DEATH,  draw  near,  for  I  would  fain  drink 

deep 
Of  thy  Lethean  cup,  and  fall  on  sleep ! 
For  I  have  sought,  and  sought  in  vain,  relief 
From  heart-corroding  care,  and  bitter  grief. 


EPIGRAMS 


On  Timocritus 

Here  sleeps  the  valiant  Timocritus  free  from 

life's  sorrows  and  cares; 
Ares  spares  not  the  brave,  only  the  coward  he 

spares. 

ijThese  epigrams  are  of  uncertain  authority,  but  are  in- 
cluded in  the  remains  of  Anacreon  by  Bergk.  The  first  four 
epigrams  were  formerly  supposed  to  be  among  the  earliest 
effusions  of  the  Teian  muse,  and  (three  of  them)  to  com- 
memorate certain  friends  or  relatives  whom  the  poet  lost  in 
conflicts  which  took  place  between  the  Thracians  and  Teians 
after  the  latter  had  sought  an  asylum  at  Abdera,  Thrace. 
Cleeonorides,  as  Barnes  observes,  seems  to  have  been  drowned 
in  attempting  a  voyage  from  Abdera  to  his  native  country  of 
Teos  in  winter. 


z66 


THE  ANACREONTEA  167 

II 

On  Agathon 

Round  this  funeral  pyre  comes  all  Abdera 
mourning 
Agathon  fearless  in  fight,  dead  in  the  flower 
of  his  youth; 
Never  before  did  the  fell  war-god  delighting  in 
carnage 
Slay  in  the  battle-whirl  a  warrior  so  noble 
and  brave. 

Ill 

On  Cleeonorides 

Thee,  too,  0  Cleeonorides,  the  desire 

Of  thy  native  land  has  ruined  in  thy  prime, 
For  thou  didst  rashly  brave  the  stormy  ire 
Of  treacherous  winds  and  waves  in  winter- 
time. 
Thus  thy  young  charms  were  whelmed  in  the 

wild  sea. 
And  quiring  surges  sang  a  dirge  o'er  thee. 


i68  THE  ANACREONTEA 

IV 

On  Aristoclides 

Thee  I  mourn,  Aristoclides,  first  of  that  heroic 

band 
Who  so  bravely  fought  and  fell  for  freedom 

and  the  father-land. 


On  Three  Bacchantes 

She  with  a  thyrsus  Heliconias 

Is  called,  Xantippe  follows,  and  behind 
Them  both  is  Glauca;    down  the  mountain- 
pass 

Dancing  they  come ;  their  wide-flung  tresses 
float 
In  streaming  waves  upon  the  wanton  wind. 

Dithyrambs  they  sing, 

And  to  Bacchus  bring 
Ivy,  grape  clusters,  and  a  fatted  goat. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  169 

VI 

On  a  Broidered  Mantle 

This  mantle  dight  with  rare  embroidery 
Praxidice  contrived  with  fertile  mind; 

Dyseris  wrought  it ;  both  have  here,  we  see, 
Their  skill  and  talents  happily  combined. 

VII 

On  Myron's  Cow 

If  thou  by  any  warning  may'st  be  stirred, 
Thy  cattle  from  Myron's  cow  feed  far  apart, 
Lest  thou  essay,  so  wonderful  his  art. 

Drive  home  the  life-like  statue  with  thy  herd. 


ADDITIONAL  POEMS 

EPIGRAMS  ON  ANACREON 

I 

(From  Antipater  of  Sidon  ^) 

With  the  dead  at  last  thou  sleep'st,  Anacreon, 
having  lived  and  loved  and  laboured  well, 

And  thy  nightly-speaking  lyre  is  silent  that 
could  charm  with  music's  sweetest  spell. 

Sleepeth  too  in  death  thy  well-loved  Smerda, 
once  of  all  thy  fond  desires  the  spring, 

*  Of  Antipater  of  Sidon  scant  intelligence  has  been  pre- 
served. He  flourished  about  lOO  B.C.,  and  was  a  scion  of 
a  noble  and  illustrious  family.  He  possessed  a  wonderful 
faculty  of  poetic  improvisation,  being  able  to  indite  a  number 
of  verses  on  any  subject  extemporaneously.  He  lived  to  a 
great  age,  and  finally  died  of  a  fever  with  which  he  was 
attacked  every  year  on  the  day  of  his  birth.  He  attained 
great  celebrity  in  his  time.  A  number  of  his  epigrams  are 
extant  in  the  Greek  Anthology,  which,  like  those  of  Simonides 
of  Ceos,  are  among  the  best  to  be  found  in  that  florilegium. 
Antipater  it  was  who  first  styled  Sappho  the  tenth  Muse. 
170 


THE  ANACREONTEA  171 

In  whose  praise  in  golden  nectarous  numbers 
did  thy  tones  harmoniously  ring. 

For  young  Eros'  shafts  thou  wast  a  shining 
mark :  on  thee  his  choicest  gifts  he  shed ; 

Fare  thee  well,  O  vanished  in  the  darkness, 
dwell  forever  with  the  deathless  dead! 


11 

(From  the  Same) 

Lo !  stranger,  veiled  in  sunless  gloom 
Lies  blithe  Anacreon.     If  to  thee  my  lyre 
Has  aught  of  pleasure  given,  I  desire 
That  thou  in  passing  by  my  simple  tomb 
Wilt  pour  upon  mine  ashes  here 
Libations  of  sheer  wine  I  loved  in  life, 
That  glowing  dreams  may  in  my  soul  be  rife, 
And  with  the  joys  on  earth  I  held  so  dear 

My  very  bones  may  thrill,  and  so 
I  who  when  quick  in  Bacchus  took  delight 
May  find  less  sad  the  sombre  cheerless  night 
Of  Hades'  realm,  where  all  at  last  must  go. 


172  THE  ANACREONTEA 

III 

{From  the  Same) 

Here  lies  Anacreon  in  this  grateful  shade; 
Here  cast  on  sleep,  sweet  poet,  thou  art  laid. 
May  roses  and  green  ivy  round  thy  tomb 
In  beauty  bloom. 

For  us  on  earth  is  hushed  thy  harp  divine 
That  rang  in  laud  of  beauty,  love,  and  wine; 
But  death  cannot  thy  glory  quench,  and  fame 
Keeps  fair  thy  name. 

Still  art  thou  dear  unto  the  Paphian  queen, 
And  in  the  mystic  regions  and  serene 
Where  dwell  the  radiant  spirits  of  the  blest 
Thou,  too,  hast  rest. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  173 


IV 

{From  the  Same) 

Around  thy  tomb  may  clustering  ivy  grow, 

And  delicate  blooms  of  purple  meads  abound, 
Anacreon !  May  white  milk  in  fountains  flow. 
And  streams  of  wine  well  from  the  sacred 
ground, 
So  that  if  aught  of  joy  reach  shades  below, 
Some  pleasure  still  thine  ashes  dear  may  know, 
Immortal  bard  who  soughtst  life's  sunny  ways, 
And  filledst  with  love  and  song  the  measure  of 
thy  days. 


174  THE  ANACREONTEA 


{Attributed  to  Simonides  of  Ceos  ^) 

Here  in  this  grave  the  sacred  relics  rest 

Of  far-renowned  Anacreon,  whom  the  bright 
Celestial  Muses  with  their  loveliest 

And  best  gifts  graced :  his  blithe  canorous  lyre 

Responded  to  his  measures  of  delight, 
Which  of  the  Loves  and  Graces  did  respire. 

He  mourneth  not  because  a  ghost  he  strays 

In  lands  of  Dis  the  dim  dominion, 
Rapt  from  the  sunlight  and  life's  mystic  maze. 

*  Moore,  in  one  of  his  notes  in  which  he  quotes  the  last  two 
lines  of  this  epigram  in  the  original,  and  translates  them  in  a 
quatrain,  confounds  the  alleged  author  with  the  old  iambic 
poet,  Simonides  of  Amorgos.  He  it  was,  not  Simonides  of 
Ceos,  who  wrote  the  satiric  poem  in  dispraise  of  women 
intituled  ^6705  TwaiKdv.  He  could  not  have  indited  epi- 
grams on  the  Swan  of  Teos,  for  the  excellent  reason  that 
he  flourished  about  660  B.C.,  one  hundred  years  before  our 
poet  was  born.  Even  if  Simonides  of  Amorgos  had  been 
coeval  with  Anacreon  it  is  not  probable  that  the  former  would 
have  been  among  the  encomiasts  of  a  poet  who  was  a  philo- 
gynist, and  whose  gallantry  was  so  delicate  and  spirituelle. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  175 

But  he  is  sad  that  Bacchic  revelries 

May  joy  him  not  again,  and  that  no  one 
Of  his  old  friends  and  loved  ones  more  he  sees. 

Natheless  the  strains  he  loved  so  well  he  sings 
Though  he  hath  done  with  things  and  times 
terrene ; 
Still  in  the  underworld  his  sweet  lyre  rings. 

And   though    enshrouds   his   head   engulfing 
gloom 
Fame  ever  keeps  his  glorious  laurels  green; 
And  Love's  self  weeps  beside  his  silent  tomb. 


176  THE  ANACREONTEA 

VI 

{Attributed  to  the  Same  ^) 

O  GREEN-TRESSED  mantling  sorrow-swageing 

vine, 
Let  thine  aspiring  tendrils  gently  twine 
Around  the  mound  and  pillared  stone  where 

lies 

1  Simonides  was  born  at  lulis,  the  chief  city  of  Ceos, 
556  B.C.  He  was  carefully  educated  in  music  and  poetry. 
In  his  early  manhood  he  instituted  a  school,  the  object  of 
which  was  to  train  the  youths  of  noble  and  distinguished 
families  to  take  part  in  the  public  choruses,  which  were  a 
feature  of  solemn  and  sacred  rites.  From  Ceos  he  fared  to 
Athens,  which  was  already  "  the  eye  of  Greece — mother  of 
arts  and  eloquence."  Here  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  -v  cure 
the  patronage  of  Hipparchus,  who  bestowed  on  him  rich 
rewards. 

After  the  expulsion  of  Hippias  in  510  b.c,  Simonides  went 
to  Thessaly,  where  he  lived  for  some  time  with  the  Aleuads 
and  Scopads.  While  in  that  country  his  life  was  saved  by  a 
special  providence  operating  in  his  favour;  for,  being  at  a 
banquet  when  the  roof  of  the  building  fell  in  with  fatal  results, 
he  alone  escaped.  In  length  of  time  he  returned  to  Athens, 
and  the  stirring  events  of  the  Persian  wars  now  furnished 
him  with  themes  worthy  of  his  muse.  He  obtained  a  prize 
for|an  elegy  on  those  slain  at  Marathon,  and  composed  epi- 
grams for  the  tombs  of  the  immortal  Three  Hundred,  who 


THE  ANACREONTEA  177 

Anacreon,  first  of  Bacchic  votaries : 

So  that  he  whom  deep  draughts  of  racy  wine 

Delighted,  and  the  mirth  of  revelries, 

May  all  night  long  in  lyric  strains  profuse 
Pour  forth  the  breathings  of  his  melic  muse, 
To  lovers  and  rouse-loving  revellers  dear; 

fell  so  gloriously  at  Thermopylae.  He  also  celebrated  the 
great  naval  victories  of  Artemisium  and  Salamis,  and  com- 
memorated the  fate  of  those  who  fell  at  Eurymedon. 

When  he  had  attained  his  eightieth  year  he  won  the  prize 
offered  for  the  dithyrambic  chorus  in  477.  This  achievement 
was  a  fitting  coronis  to  the  long  series  of  his  poetical  triumphs. 
Subsequently  he  went  to  Syracuse  on  the  invitation  of 
Hieron,  who,  although  of  a  somewhat  despotic  disposition, 
was  a  liberal  patron  of  poets  and  philosophers.  He  lived  on 
terms  of  intimacy  with  this  monarch,  by  whom  he  was  much 
esteemed  and  highly  honoured.  At  the  Syracusan  court  the 
poet  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days.  His  death  occurred 
467  B.C.,  when  he  was  ninety  years  old. 

Simonides  invented  the  mnemonic  art,  and  added  the  long 
vowels  and  double  letters  to  the  Greek  alphabet.  He  was  as 
eminent  for  piety  and  virtue  as  for  genius,  and  hence  he  was 
believed  to  have  been  under  the  special  protection  of  the 
gods.  It  is  said  that  he  was  the  first  to  make  poetry  a  pro- 
fession and  to  take  money  for  his  works.  Besides  elegies 
and  epigrams  he  wrote  hymns,  odes,  and  threnes.  The 
cardinal  qualities  of  his  poetry  were  sweetness,  elegance, 
depth  of  feeling,  and  facility  of  expression.  In  verve  and 
sublimity,  however,  he  was  much  inferior  to  Sappho  and 
Pindar. 


178  THE  ANACREONTEA 

And  that  although  his  dust  lies  buried  here, 
Still,  generous  vine,  thy  sweet  down-dropping 

dews 
May  gratefully  his  manes  soothe  and  cheer. 


VII 1 

{From  Leonidas  of  Tarentum  ') 

Upon  this  round  pedestal  behold  Anacreon 

placed, 
With  wine  elate  and  merry  as  he  is  wont 

to  be; 
Bold  bacchanal,  his  brows  are  with  glowing 

garlands  graced, 

*  In  translating  this  epigram  I  have  availed  myself  of  the 
liberties  of  paraphrase  to  euphemise  and  alter  some  expres- 
sions of  the  original,  which  would  be  likely  to  give  offence  to 
the  admirers  of  our  poet,  because  they  present  him  in  a  some- 
what undesirable  light.  I  have  myself  a  much  more  elevated 
opinion  of  the  character  of  the  Teian  minstrel  than  these  ex- 
pressions would  seem  to  warrant.  But  the  epigram,  in  toto, 
is  probably  accurately  descriptive  of  the  ancient  statues  of 
Anacreon,  which  represented  him  as  a  hale  and  hearty  old 
man,  in  a  wanton  attitude,  singing  to  his  lyre,  and  overcome 
by  wine. 

^  Of  the  history  of  Leonidas  of  Tarentum  very  little  is 


THE  ANACREONTEA  179 

And  with  voluptuous  languors  his  eyes  swim 
dreamily. 
In  flowing  folds  about  him  his  robe  is  loosely 
drawn, 
Just  like  a  careless  reveller  one  buskin  he 
hath  lost — 
While  fitted  to  his  shrivelled  foot  the  other  he 
hath  on. 
He  in  his  hand  upraises  his  harp — ^how  he 
was  crossed 
In  love,^  and  how  his  amours  were  oft  crowned 
with  success 
He  sings  and  of  Megisteus  and  Bathyllus 
lovely-fair : 

known.  He  is  supposed  to  have  flourishedfin  the  time  of 
Pyrrhus  (318-272  B.C.).  He  led  a  roving  life,  and  at  last  died 
far  from  his  birthplace.  The  Muses  proved  a  great  solace  to 
him  in  his  wanderings  and  tribulations.  He  wrote  in  the 
Doric  dialect,  and  achieved  celebrity  and  applause  as  an  epi- 
grammatic poet.  More  than  a  hundred  of  his  epigrams  are 
preserved  in  the  Greek  Anthology.  His  poetry,  though  not 
of  a  high  order,  is  pleasing  and  ingenious,  and  characterised 
by  good  taste  and  creditable  sentiments. 

»This  rendering  is  warranted  if  one  accepts  Jacobs'  ex- 
planation of  rdf  dvffipiara,  viz.  "  to  which  his  unsuccessful 
loves  are  sung." 


i8o  THE  ANACREONTEA 

In  praise  of  wine  and  pleasure  well  can  he 

thoughts  express, 
And  in  delightful  measures  his  ardent  soul 

declare. 
Protect  him,  Father  Bacchus,  it  is  not  meet 

at  all 
That  thy  so  famous  votary  from  lack  of  care 

should  fall. 


VIII 

{Attributed  to  Theocritus) 

Stranger!   who  near  this  statue  hap  to  stray 

Regard  it  well,  I  pray,  with  sedulous  care. 
So  that  returning  home  from  Teos  you  may 

Exclaim,  "  I  saw  Anacreon's  statue  there." 
Then  if  you  say,  "  He  was  the  flower  and 
choice 

Of  all  the  stars  of  song  of  pristine  days. 
And  in  the  young  and  fair  he  did  rejoice," 

You   will   describe  him,   and   most   justly 
praise. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  i8i 

IX 

(From  Critias  of  Athens  ^) 

Ionian  Tecs  populous  and  fair 

To  Hellas  gave  renowned  Anacreon 

Who  wove  sweet  wreaths  of  song  in  beauty's 

praise, 
And  sang  so  well  wine's  care-dispelling  joys. 
He  was  a  star  of  revels ;  of  the  Nine 
The  darling;  and  the  dear  delight  of  maids. 

1  Critias  was  the  son  of  Callaescherus  and  grandson  of 
Critias,  son  of  Dropidas.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Socrates,  and  of 
Gorgias  of  Leontini.  In  406  B.C.,  after  the  murder  of  the 
generals  who  had  been  victorious  at  Arginusae,  he  fomented  a 
revolt  against  the  lords  in  Thessaly,  in  conjunction  with  one 
Prometheus,  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  the  same  as 
Jason  of  Pherae.  On  his  return  to  Athens  he  became  leader 
of  the  oligarchical  party,  and  was  chosen  one  of  the  Ephori. 
Afterwards  he  was  chief  of  the  thirty  tyrants  set  over  Athens 
by  the  Spartans.  He  was  slain  in  403  b.c.  at  the  battle 
of  Munychia,  while  fighting  against  Thrasybulus  and  the 
Liberators.  He  was  a  man  of  conspicuous  talents,  but  cruel, 
tyrannical,  rapacious,  and  unscrupulous.  After  his  banish- 
ment from  Athens  by  a  sentence  of  the  people  he  became  an 
enemy  of  popular  rights.  He  was  eloquent,  well-bred,  and 
distinguished  as  a  poet  and  orator.  He  wrote  tragedies,  and 
elegiac  poems,  some  fragments  of  which  are  extant. 


1 82  THE  ANACREONTEA 

As  long  as  red  wine  sparkles  in  the  cup, 
And  mellow  flutes  and  lyres  at  banquets  ring, 
And  the  Sicilian  cottabus  is  played, 
His  fame  shall  flourish,  yea,  till  time  hath  end. 

X 

(From  Celio  Calcagnini  ^) 

Poet  renowned,  thy  honeyed  breath 
A   grape-stone   stopped — ^the   factor   of   dire 
death. 

May  roses  shed  their  rich  perfume, 
And  ivy  and  laurel  flourish  round  thy  tomb. 

*  Celio  Calcagnini  (Caelius  Calcagninus),  a  natural  son  of 
an  ecclesiastic  of  Ferrara,  was  bom  in  that  city  in  1479.  He 
studied  under  Peter  Pomponazzo,  but  embracing  a  military 
career  he  served  in  the  armies  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian 
and  Pope  Julius  II.  Afterwards  he  was  sent  to  Rome  on  an 
important  diplomatic  mission.  On  his  return  to  Ferrara  he 
was  fortunate  in  securing  the  favour  and  friendship  of  Car- 
dinal Ippolito  d'Este,  whom  he  accompanied  into  Hungarj'. 

In  1520  he  was  appointed  professor  of  belles-lettres  in  the 
university,  and  canon  of  the  church  in  his  native  city,  which 
positions  he  filled  with  signal  credit  until  his  demise  in  1541. 
He  was  buried  in  the  library  of  the  Dominicans,  to  whom 
he  bequeathed  his  books  and  philosophical  instruments.  On 
his  tomb  are  two  inscriptions  to  his  memory,  one  signifying 
that  as  the  result  of  his  studies  he  had  learned  to  esteem 


THE  ANACREONTEA  183 

O  let  not  here  thy  tendrils  twine, 
But  be  thou  hence,  far  hence,  flagitious  vine, 

Whereby  to  Acheron  was  sent 
The  brightest  star  of  mystic  revelment. 

Lyaeus  loves  thee  not  so  well, 
0  vine,  since  on  such  wise  Anacreon  fell ! 

lightly  sublunary  things,  and  not  to  be  insensible  to  his  own 
ignorance  {ignorantiam  suam  non  ignorare). 

He  achieved  reputation  as  an  astronomer,  orator,  and 
poet,  and  also  as  an  archaeologist  and  prose-writer.  He 
corresponded  with  Erasmus,  whom,  like  many  others,  he 
censured  for  his  indecision  in  matters  which  arose  out  of  the 
Reformation.  In  one  of  his  astronomical  treatises  entitled 
Quomodo  ccBlum  stet  he  demonstrated  with  precision  the 
revolution  of  the  earth  around  the  sun. 

In  1 541  his  prose  works  were  printed  at  Basle  in  one 
volume  folio.  They  consist  of  sixteen  books  of  epistles  and 
philosophical  and  critical  dissertations  on  divers  themes. 
His  poetry  (in  three  books)  is  included  in  the  Delicies  Pcetarum 
Italorutn,  and  was  also  published  with  the  poetical  com- 
positions of  Pigua  and  Ariosto  at  Venice  in  1583. 


i84     THE  ANACREONTEA 


MOORE'S  GREEK  ODE  TRANSLATED  ^ 

Once  lay  the  Teian  singer 

On  a  couch  of  roses  reclining, 

Merrily  laughing  and  quaffing, 

And  on  his  sweet  lyre  playing; 

Whilst  about  him  the  tender 

Erotes  kept  dancing  in  concert. 

One,  of  Kythera  was  forging 

The  darts — ^those  soul-piercing  arrows ; 

Another  of  argent-hued  lilies 

And  radiant  roses  had  woven 

A  garland,  and  therewith  encircling 

The  brows  of  the  old  man,  caressed  him. 

Then  Sophia,  queen  of  goddesses. 
From  Olympus  beholding  Anacreon, 
Beholding  the  graceful  Erotes 
Spake  thus  to  the  bard  in  reproval: 
"  Wise  one,  for  the  wise  call  Anacreon 

1  This  ode  is  evidently  an  allegorical  fiction  in  the  manner 
of  several  poems  in  the  Anacreontea.  A  dialogue  between 
Wisdom  personified  (Athene)  and  the  Teian  poet  takes  place. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  185 

The  wisest  of  mankind,  why  hast  thou 

Devoted  thy  life  to  Lyaeus, 

And  to  the  Erotes,  why  dost  thou 

Sing  ever  the  kiss  of  Kythera, 

And  the  mirth-kindling  cups  of  Lyaeus, 

Not  teaching  my  laws  and  not  winning 

My  precious  gifts  as  a  guerdon  ?  " 

And  the  Teian  singer  made  answer : 
"  Be  not  displeased,  gracious  goddess, 
That  apart  from  thee  I  am  regarded 
By  the  wise  the  wisest  of  all  men. 
I  love,  I  drink  wine,  and  the  Muses 
I  court  with  ardent  devotion. 
And  with  fair  women  I  revel 
In  simple  delight,  and  my  heart  breathes 
Only  love  like  my  harp-strings : 
Thus  above  all  things  prizing 
The  calm  of  life,  tell  me,  I  pray  thee, 
Am  I  not  a  wise  singer. 
Who,  troth,  of  mortals  is  wiser  ?  " 


i86  THE  ANACREONTEA 


POEMS  ON  ANACREON  BY  THE 
TRANSLATOR 


Hail!  Teian  poet,  who  didst  wage 

War  to  the  knife  with  hateful  age. 

Thou  soughtst  with  blooming  maids  and  boys 

To  grasp  the  present's  fleeting  joys; 

Thy  lyre  melodious  did  praise 

Love,  wine  and  beauty  all  thy  days; 

Wisely  thou  urgedst  the  hours  along 

With  dance  and  wassail,  mirth  and  song, 

Though  wintry  tresses  crowned  thy  head, 

Spring  never  in  thy  heart  was  dead. 

O  star  of  Bacchic  revelries ! 

O  master  of  sweet  harmonies ! 

With  thee  forget  we  pain  and  care. 

With  thee  the  face  of  life  is  fair. 

What  time  the  world  through  space  spins 

round 
Shall  fame  thy  name  in  time's  ear  sound. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  187 


II 

Were  I  a  master  of  Apelles'  art 
Vd  paint  with  all  my  skill  and  all  my  heart 
Anacreon,  and  in  this  wise  him  would  show : — 
With  merry  sparkling  eyes,  and  cheeks  aglow, 
A  wine-cup  in  one  hand,  the  other  placed 
Around  gold-tressed  Eurypyle's  trim  waist; 
His  lyre  near  by,  and  on  his  tresses  white, 
By  his  fair  mistress  twined,  a  garland  bright. 
Cupid  should  fan  him  with  his  azure  wings, 
And  buxom  Bacchus  in  blithe  dallyings 
With  lovely  Venus  should  be  shewn,  and,  too, 
Comus  should  revel  with  his  roistering  crew. 
And  Age  and  Care  be  seen  passing  from  sight 
Mid  jeers  and  scoffs  into  the  silent  night. 


1 88  THE  ANACREONTEA 


III 

O  BLITHE  Stray  spirit  of  the  Teian  muse! 
Anacreon,  Lyaeus-loved  of  old, 
Thou   scornedst    the   praise   of   men,    and 
Gyges'  gold, 
And  lotus  -  wreathed,   rose  -  garlanded,  didst 

choose 
A  life  of  pleasure;  with  the  hybla  dews 
Parnassian  thy  lips  were  flecked.     Old  Age 
Shrank  cowering  from  thee,  care-despising 
sage, 
Whose  songs  forever  joy  and  mirth  diffuse. 

With  soft  Ionic  murmurs  as  a  stream 

Rolling  persuasion  through  the  myrtle  glades, 
Haunted    by    festive    fauns    and    wood- 
nymphs  bright: 
So  flows  thy  strain.     Ah!    master,  comes  a 
dream 
Of  Pyrrha,  and  the  white  Achaean  maids 
To  thee  in  the  ghost-glimmering  vales  of 
night  ? 


THE  ANACREONTEA  189 


IV 


Bard  of  the  flower-sweet  lyre,  what  life  was 
thine 

In  famous  climes  in  times  so  long  since  fled, 
Drowning  thy  care  in  bowls  of  Samian  wine. 

Armed  with  the  thyrsus,  myrtle-garlanded. 
Fair  worshipper  at  Cytherea's  shrine! 

How  often  in  some  cool  inviting  glade 

Hast  thou  reclined  with  young  Bathyllus 
nigh; 

Or  in  the  fond  arms  of  a  Thracian  maid 
Dissolved  in  bliss  didst  thou  delight  to  lie. 
And  let  the  worthless  striving  world  pass  by! 

Not  in  thee  burned  the  Atridae's  warlike  fire. 
Instead  the  flame  of  wine-inspired  delight; 

Of  love's  delicious  raptures  breathed  thy  lyre. 
Of  beauty's  spell  and  amours  recondite 

Which  smote  to  sweeter  song  the  whispering 
wire. 


190  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Star  of  the  court  of  King  Polycrates, 
The  banquet  saw  thy  mirth  and  gaiety; 

And  in  the  goblet  emptied  to  the  lees 
Forgotten  were  the  ills  of  life  with  thee 
Mid  light  and  laughter,  warmth  and  luxury. 

Poor  heart  so  pierced  with  Parthian  shafts  of 
love, 
Sweet  lips  that  mocked  Age  to  his  wrinkled 
face. 
Still  through  the  mist  of  centuries  dost  move 

Most  musically,  with  inimitable  grace; 
Thy  muse  no  jovial  souls  wax  weary  of. 

To  thee  nought  was  the  praise  of  men  or  gold. 
Or  Apollo's  gift,  the  laurel  wreath  of  fame 

That  ripens  tardily  but  to  enfold 

A  hoary  head  or  grace  a  grave  when  shame 
And  honour  to  the  sleeper  are  the  same. 

Strike  with  thy  plectrum,  let  us  hear  again 
Voluptuous  joy-notes  of  thy  harp  divine, 

Breathing  the  Bacchic  dances'  fervent  strain. 
The  bousing  bout,  pain's  subtle  anodyne, 

The  teeming  vat,  the  wine-press'  rose-red  rain. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  191 

Strike  with  thy  plectrum,  Teian  master,  shape 
In  light    foam-crests  of   song   the   revel's 
glare; 
And  sing  the  glowing  glories  of  the  grape — 
Not  the  shrill-shouting  Maenad  with  wind- 
tossed  hair, 
But  the  bowl's  charms,  and  conquests  of  the 
fair. 

Ere,  as  old  records  tell,  the  height-watched 
wave 
That    washes    yet    white-hilled    Leucadian 
land 
Granted  lorn  Sappho  an  unhappy  grave, 

For  Phaon  sighing  on  the  sounding  strand. 
Didst  thou  her  ardent  kisses  win  and  crave  ? 

When  Arc t OS  and  Bootes  gleam  on  high. 
And  summer  winds   blow  soft   in  drowsy 
wise, 

I'll  fancy  that  in  dreamful  calm  I  lie 
At  ease  beneath  the  blue  Ionian  skies. 
Where  the  cicada  sings,  the  nymph  replies: 


192  THE  ANACREONTEA 

And  where  the  shepherd's  reed  among  the  hills, 

Vine-braided,  laden  with  the  ripening  fruit, 

Sounds  silver-sweet  with  all  love's  passionate 

thrills, 

Borne  on  spiced  breezes  when  loud  winds 

are  mute, 

Mixed  with  wild  murmur  of  far  mountain  rills. 

And  in  the  satyr-haunted  woods  I'll  tread 
The  grassy  paths  thine  own  dear  feet  have 
pressed. 
With  green   umbrageous   boughs   above   my 
head. 
And  fancy  in  the  glamour  of  my  rest 
Thou  art  not  with  death's  cheerless  gloom 
oppressed. 

Dead  art  thou  ?  Nay !  for  thou  art  with  us  yet 
Light-hearted  as  in  old  Hellenic  hours; 

Thy  lively  lyre  no  frosts  of  time  can  fret : 
Time  chilling  hearts  and  overturning  powers 
Falls   on   thee   like   a   storm   on   sheltered 
flowers. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  193 

Pale-visaged  Age  with  tarnished  locks  of  white 
Plucked  at   thy  beard,  and    said,  "  Aha ! 
thou  art  mine!  " 
But  back  into  Cimmerian  depths  of  night 
Thou  jeeredst  him  with  tried  comrades,  song 
and  wine. 
Thy  weird  was  fitting  end  of  wild  delight.^ 

»  While  drinking  some  new  wine  he  was  choked  by  a  grape- 
stone  and  expired. 


194     THE  ANACREONTEA 


ANACREONTICS  BY  THE  TRANSLATOR 

I 

To  the  lute's  voluptuous  sound 
Let  the  rosy  bowl  go  round. 
He  who  drinks  not,  much  doth  miss; 
Wine  the  true  nepenthe  is. 
In  a  little  while  we  must 
Die,  and  moulder  into  dust. 
Let  us  quaff  then  while  we  may 
And  in  paths  of  pleasure  stray. 
There  is  music  in  the  whoop 
Of  satyrs,  and  the  merry  cloop 
Of  flying  corks ;  and  glasses'  clink 
Makes  one  of  the  fairies  think. 
Wine  will  pallid  faces  brighten, 
Wine  will  Paphian  blisses  heighten, 
Wine  a  glamour  bright  will  throw 
Over  life,  and  care  and  woe 


THE  ANACREONTEA  195 

Lull  in  gracious  wise  to  sleep. 
Comrades,  let  our  draughts  be  deep, 
Ere  the  phantom  death  draws  nigh, 
And  within  cold  graves  we  lie. 


II 


Comrades,  joyous  be  to-night; 

After  death  is  no  delight. 

Life  no  pleasure  so  divine 

Holds  as  those  of  wit  and  wine; 

When  blithe  Bacchus  rules  the  roast. 

Care  in  rosy  depths  is  lost. 

Wine  will  kindle  light  in  eyes 

Dull  with  many  miseries. 

Let  our  brows  with  flowers  be  crowned, 

And  delicious  music  sound. 

Live  as  lived  Anacreon 

In  the  merry  years  agone. 

Laugh  as  laughed  the  Abderan 

At  the  frailties  of  man. 

In  a  little  while  the  end, 

But  while  have  we  wine  to  friend 


196  THE  ANACREONTEA 

Let  us  gloomy  thoughts  despise 
And  with  fleering  mockeries 
Greet  Old  Age,  till  off  he  slink, 
Leaving  us  to  jest  and  drink. 


Ill 

Raindrops  dance  earthward  musically, 
The  moonlight  dances  on  the  sea. 
Blue  laughing  ripples  dance  in  glee. 
The  falling  snowflakes  frail  and  fair 
Dance  through  the  fields  of  wintry  air, 
And  eke  the  leaves  upon  the  trees 
Dance  to  the  music  of  the  breeze. 
In  apogee  and  perigee 
The  planets  dance  about  the  sun, 
And  as  in  sportive  revelry 
Their  never-ending  courses  run. 
As  rapt  astronomers  discern 
A  satellite  quartette  appears 
Of  Medicean  stars  that  turn 
Round  Jupiter.     Two  austrine  stars 
Likewise  revolve  round  old  Saturn — 


THE  ANACREONTEA  197 

Dancing  to  the  immortal  bars 
Of  the  ringing  music  of  the  spheres. 
Fire-flies  dance  glittering  in  the  dark, 
King  David  danced  before  the  ark ; 
Fair  Miriam  and  her  female  bands 
Danced,  bearing  timbrels  in  their  hands; 
When  Judith  had  Holofernes  slain 
And  made  Bethulia  free  again, 
The  dance  triumphantly  she  led. 
An  olive- wreath  upon  her  head. 
Why  cavil  then  that  merrily 
I  dance  midst  Bacchic  revelry  ? 
Through  mazy  measures  will  I  stray. 
Pursuing  pleasure  while  I  may.^ 

*  This  Anacreontic  was  suggested  by  the  nineteenth  ode  of 
the  Anacreontea.  As  that  ode  is  an  apology  for  drinking, 
so  is  this  poem  a  summing  up  of  the  arguments  for  dancing. 
For  most  of  the  allusions  herein  contained  I  must  acknow- 
ledge my  indebtedness  to  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy, 
Part  HI.,  Sec.  2,  Mem.  2,  Subj.  4,  viz.  "  Artificial  Allure- 
ments."    The  passage  in  question  is  as  follows: — 

"  Let  them  take  pleasure  as  he  said  of  old,  young  men  and 
maidens  flourishing  in  their  age,  fair  and  lovely  to  behold,  well 
attired  and  of  a  comely  carriage  dancing  a  Greek  galliard,  and 
as  their  dance  required,  kept  their  time,  now  turning,  now 
tracing,  now  apart,  now  together,  now  a  courtesy,  then  a 
caper,  etc.;   and  it  was  a  pleasant  sight  to  see  these  pretty 


198  THE  ANACREONTEA 


IV 

Merry  comrades,  to  blithe  Bacchus 

Swell  the  dithyrambic  chorus; 
He  first  trained  the  wanton  tendrils 
Of  the  vine — a  boon  to  mortals. 
He  will  grant  us  manumission 
From  the  gyves  of  Care  the  tyrant; 
He  will  pour  us  dreams  of  rapture. 
And  give  radiant  wings  to  fancy. 
There  is  music  in  the  clinking 
Of  the  glass  to  glass  uplifted — 
Music  to  symposiasts  sweeter 

knots,  and  swimming  figures.  The  sun  and  moon,  some  say, 
dance  about  the  earth,  the  three  upper  planets  about  the 
sun  as  their  centre,  now  stationary,  now  direct,  now  retro- 
grade, now  in  apogee,  then  in  perigee,  now  swift,  then  slow, 
occidentaJ,  oriental,  they  turn  round,  jump  and  trace  9  and 
5  about  the  sun  with  those  33  Maculae  or  Bourbonian  planets 
circa  Solent  saltantes  Cytharedum,  saith  Formendus.  Four 
Medicean  stars  dance  about  Jupiter,  two  Austrian  about 
Saturn,  etc.,  and  all  (belike)  to  the  music  of  the  spheres.  Our 
greatest  counsellors  and  staid  senators  at  sometimes  dance, 
as  David  before  the  Ark,  2  Sam.  vi.  14;  Miriam,  Exod.  xv. 
20;  Judith  (Apocrypha)  xv.  13  (though  the  devil  perhaps 
hath  brought  in  those  bawdy  bacchanals),  and  well  may 
they  do  it." 


THE  ANACREONTEA  199 

Than  the  grandest  strains  of  masters. 
Dull  ascetics  may  be  moping 
And  contemn  joys  temulentive, 
We  enjoy  life  as  it  fleeteth, 
Carpe  diem  is  our  motto. 

We  will  not,  methinks,  come  sooner 
To  Persephone's  dark  chamber, 
And  old  Charon's  Stygian  ferry, 
That  with  wine  our  clay  we  moisten, 
And  are  jovial  in  loco. 
Then  with  free  mirth  and  light  laughter 
Let  us  drain  the  sparkling  beaker; 
And  may  wit  and  friendship  flourish. 


200     THE  ANACREONTEA 

THE  DEATH  OF  ADONIS  ^ 

{Attributed  to  Bion) 

When  Cythera  saw  Adonis 

Cold,  and  lifeless  as  a  stone  is, 

Wild  with  grief  she  showered  caresses 

On  his  wild  dishevelled  tresses. 

And  his  fairest  face  of  faces, 

Whereon  now  of  rose  no  trace  is, 

While  sharp  pangs  of  grief  shot  through  her; 

She  the  Loves  bade  bring  unto  her 

The  wild  boar  which  slew  her  lover. 

They  forthwith  did  wander  over 

All  the  forest  till  they  found  him, 

Then  with  strongest  cords  they  bound  him; 

One  fair  Love  with  zeal  unflagging 

By  a  rope  the  beast  kept  dragging, 

Him  behind  another  harrows 

Striking  him  with  pointed  arrows; 

*This  apologue,  which  is  in  the  manner  and  metre  of 
Anacreon,  is  sometimes  printed  with  the  odes. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  201 

Slowly  was  the  beast  advancing, 

While  his  capturers  kept  lancing 

His  dark  fell  with  sportive  malice. 

When  they  reached  Cythera's  palace 

Thus  spake  Aphrodite  to  him : 

"  Hateful  beast,  is't  thou  that  slew  him  ? 

Him  will  life  no  longer  quicken. 

My  Adonis  hast  thou  stricken!  ^ 

His  white  thigh  so  softly  rounded 

Have  thy  wicked  weapons  wounded." 

But  he  answered,  "  Aphrodite, 

By  myself,  and  these  my  mighty 

Hunters,  and  thy  beauteous  lover, 

I  the  reason  will  discover. 

Know,  I  did  not  wish  to  kill  him. 

Pained  am  I  that  death  should  chill  him; 

But  I  gazed  infatuated 

On  his  peerless  charms  iU-fated. 

I  was  mad  to  kiss  his  naked 

Thighs,  and  I  my  passion  slaked. 

Thus  the  lover  thou  didst  cherish 

Slain  was — but  my  teeth  let  perish; 

Wrench  them  from  my  jaws,  and  should  not 


202  THE  ANACREONTEA 

These  appease  thee — ^my  life  that  would  not 
To  the  voice  of  reason  hearken 
Cut  away."     Although  so  stark  in 
Death  Adonis  slept,  compassion 
For  his  slayer's  fatal  passion 
Filled  her  heart,  so  'twas  no  wonder 
That  she  bade  the  Loves  to  sunder 
The  boar's  fetters;  yet  no  more  he 
Sought  the  woods,  and  freedom's  glory; 
But  the  queen  of  love  and  laughter 
Evermore  he  followed  after; 
And  with  ceaseless  plaint  kept  mourning, 
Pardon  by  his  penitence  earning. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  203 


EROS  THE  RUNAWAY 

(Moschus,  Idyllium  I.) 

In  great  distress  fair  Cypris  cried: 

"  If  any  hath  seen  mine  Eros  straying 
Upon  the  highway  wandering  wide, 

And  me  he  tells,  for  the  betraying 
The  informer  shall  rewarded  be 

With  one  of  Cypris'  choicest  kisses; 
His  who  the  truant  brings  to  me 

Not  a  mere  kiss  but  more  than  this  is. 

"  Now  ken  the  boy's  fame's  everywhere, 

Amid  a  crowd  you'd  surely  know  him, 
In  colour  he's  indeed  not  fair 

But  like  to  fire — Ah !  that  would  shew  him. 
His  eyes  are  keen  and  fiery  red. 

His  wicked,  smooth  tongue  often  screening 
(Though  seeming  fair  his  words  are  said) 

With  subtle  lies  his  real  meaning. 


204  THE  ANACREONTEA 

"  His  voice  as  honey  is,  but  if 

He  is  provoked  there's  no  believing 
A  word  he  saith — ^when  in  a  tiff 

He's  always  ruthless  and  deceiving; 
The  crafty  child  but  seldom  tells 

The  truth;  his  victims  he  hies  after; 
And  while  his  heart  with  anger  swells, 

He  mocks  their  miseries  with  laughter. 

"  His  tiny  hands  'tis  true  they  are 

As  slight  as  a  patrician  lady's; 
Yet  they,  pardie,  can  shoot  as  far 

As  Acheron,  or  the  King  of  Hades. 
He's  naked,  but  his  mind  is  hid. 

And  winged  as  a  bird  he's  flitting; 
To  girls,  youths,  women,  men  unbid 

He  comes,  upon  their  vitals  sitting. 

"  He  hath  a  small  bow  whereupon 

An  arrow's  placed — ^small  but  it  carries 

Unto  the  far  refulgent  sun. 

And  whither  sent  right  there  it  tarries. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  205 

An  arsenal  above  his  back 

Is  bound — in  other  words  a  quiver 

Of  gold  filled  with  sharp  shafts  that  rack, 
And  even  me  make  sometimes  shiver. 

"  All  things  of  his  are  cruel,  and 

Far  most  the  tiniest  of  torches, 
He  bears  it  in  his  little  hand, 

And  with  it  Sol  himself  he  scorches. 
But  should  you  catch  the  little  waif 

0!  bind  him  though  he  may  entreat  you; 
Pity  him  not  but  hold  him  safe, 

If  he  should  weep,  beware,  he'll  cheat  you. 

"  Though  he  should  smile  his  sweetest  smile 

For  that  just  hale  him  on  the  faster; 
If  he  to  kiss  you  wish  the  while, 

Take  care !  his  kiss  portends  disaster : 
His  lips  are  poison — should  he  say 

*  Here,    take    mine    arms !  '    with    accents 
gracious 
Accept  them  not  at  all,  I  pray. 

They're  all  fire-dipped — his  gifts  fallacious." 


2o6  THE  ANACREONTEA 

PRAISE  OF  WINE 

{From  Bacchylides  of  Ceos) 

When  rosy  wine  is  freely  flowing 
Love  holdeth  sway  within  the  soul; 

And  hope  and  joy,  a  glamour  throwing 
O'er  life,  rise  radiant  from  the  bowl. 

Entrancing  visions  fair  and  glorious 

Are  ours ;  straight  vanish  grief  and  pain : 

And  we  exalted  and  victorious 
As  great  as  kings  in  fancy  reign. 

Mavortial  ardors,  too,  enflame  us. 

And  the  red  battle's  fiery  ways 
Then  seek  we,  or  with  valiance  famous 

The  walls  of  populous  cities  raze. 

With  gold  and  ivory  are  resplendent 

Our  homes;  ships  bring  us  from  far  shores 

Vast  wealth,  on  our  desires  attendant — 
'Tis  thus  the  quaifer's  spirit  soars. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  207 


ON  CJELIA 

{From  the  Latin  of  Angerianus,  Sports  oj 
Cupid,  Epigram  XL.) 

What  time  tranced  in  sweet  slumber  Cupid  lay 
Caelia  by  stealth  his  quiver  stole  away. 

Awaking,  he  his  grief  expressed 
With   tears   and  plaints — on   Cypris'   snowy 
breast 

He  solace  sought.     She  said,  "  Dear,  cease  to 

plain. 
And  weep  no  more,  for  Caelia  will  again 
Thy  shafts  restore — of  them,  indeed. 
Being  so  wondrous  fair  she  hath  no  need. 

"  Delicious  wiles,  bright  wit,  and  graces  rare 
Are  hers;  she  bliss  begets,  and  bleak  despair; 

More  powerful.  Love,  than  thy  swift  darts 
Her  charms  whereby  she  rules  o'er  ravished 
hearts.'* 


208  THE  ANACREONTEA 


TO  CASSANDRA 

{From  Pierre  Ronsard) 

O  DEAREST,  at  this  vesper  hour 
Let  us  unto  our  favourite  bower 
And  see  if  that  voluptuous  rose 
Which  but  this  morning  did  disclose 
Its  glowing  splendours  to  the  sun 
Is  not  now  utterly  fordone. 
Alas !  its  beauty,  like  to  yours. 
No  more  enchants,  no  more  allures, 
For  in  the  dust  its  petals  lie. 
And  all  the  wooing  winds  go  by. 
0  nature!   too  step-motherly 
Thou  seem'st  to  me  indeed  to  be. 
That  thou  hast  taken  little  care 
In  nourishing  a  flower  so  fair 
Which  but  a  day  rich  fragrance  shed 
(0  life  too  brief!)  and  now  lies  dead. 
Dearest,  believe  me,  it  is  best. 


THE  ANACREONTEA  209 

While  yet  your  life  is  loveliest 
With  youth's  fair  hues,  to  well  employ 
The  golden  present's  passing  joy; 
For  like  this  flower,  rude  time  at  last 
Your  beauty's  brilliant  bloom  will  blast. 


2 10  THE  AN ACREONTE A 


LOVE 

(From  the  Latin  of  George  Buchanan) 

Who's  this  pretty  winged  boy  ? 
'Tis  Love,  mischievous  and  coy. 
Old  as  time  he  still  is  young, 
Suasive  is  his  silver  tongue. 
Frequently  perdu  he  lies 
In  the  depths  of  laughing  eyes; 
Wealth  and  ease  and  luxury, 
Youth,  desire  and  levity, — 
These  his  close  companions  be. 
Beauty  and  seductive  smiles, 
Agacerie,  and  wanton  wiles 
Nourish  him,  and  honeyed  kisses. 
He  the  soul  with  grief  can  wring, 
And  can  dreams  of  rapture  bring. 
Hopes,  and  fears,  and  dainty  blisses 
Are  his  guerdons,  and  his  darts 


THE  ANACREONTEA  211 

Havoc  make  with  human  hearts. 
Death,  perdie,  he  laughs  to  scorn; 
Oft  his  life  doth  ebb  away 
Many  times  in  one  brief  day, 
And  as  oft  he  is  reborn. 


212  THE  ANACREONTEA 

DRINKING  SONG 

(From  Theophile  Gautier) 

Let  us  sing  in  chorus  praises 
Of  jolly  buxom  Bacchus. 
Long  live  the  purple  vintage, 
Long  live  the  wine-vat's  treasure, 
And  long  live  we  to  quaff  it. 

We  love  the  sparkling  colours 
Of  wine,  we  love  carousals. 
Pale  cheeks  the  wine-bowl  flushes, 
It  kindles  eyes  with  love-light. 
And  dullards'  tongues  makes  witty. 

Who  worships  not  the  wine-god, 
And  when  the  goblet  circles 
Refuses  to  be  merry, 
May  he  be  changed  by  Circe 
To  a  frog,  and  croak  in  marshes. 


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